1  Library 
F,  S.  PHH_B:tlCK 


5    1935 


THE   INDIAN   POLICY   OF   SPAIN. 

THE  story  of  the  relations  between  Spain  and  the  natives  of 
her  Western  colonies  is  full  of  interest  and  instruction. 
Like  our  own  dealings  with  our  Indians,  it  shows  how  the 
kindly  intentions  of  governments,  expressed  in  beneficent  legis- 
lation, may  be  rendered  nugatory  when  administration  is 
intrusted  to  unworthy  hands  or  when  sufficient  influence  is 
brought  to  bear  by  those  who  profit  from  abuses.  In  view  of 
the  responsibilities  which  the  United  States  are  assuming  in 
the  remnant  of  Spain's  colonial  empire,  a  brief  review  of  early 
Spanish  experiences  may  perhaps  be  not  without  wholesome 
warning. 

It  is  to  Bartolome  de  las  Casas  that  we  owe  most  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  seamy  side  of  Spanish  conquest  and  colonization. 
Born,  in  1474,  of  a  good  family  in  Seville,  he  had  a  university 
training  and  acquired  the  grade  of  licentiate  in  laws.  His 
interest  in  the  New  World  was  inherited,  for  his  father  was  one 
of  the  companions  of  Columbus  and  returned  to  Spain  in  1497. 
In  1502,  when  Ovando  was  sent  to  Hispanola  to  replace  Boba- 
dilla,  Bartolome  accompanied  him,  and  his  career  thenceforth 
was  irrevocably  determined.  At  first,  like  his  compatriots,  he 
seems  to  have  taken  little  thought  as  to  the  unhappy  fate  of  the 
natives,  but  when,  after  entering  the  Church  and  taking  orders, 
he  accompanied,  in  1511,  Diego  Velazquez  in  the  conquest  of 
Cuba,  the  ferocious  cruelty  of  the  invaders  made  such  an  impres- 
sion on  him  that,  after  a  short  period  of  hesitation,  he  devoted 
the  rest  of  his  prolonged  life  to  the  relief  of  the  oppressed.  For 
this  he  was  admirably  fitted  by  nature  and  training.  Though 
hot-tempered,  he  was  gifted  with  perseverance  which  no  rebuff 
or  disappointment  could  outwear.  Learned,  eloquent  and  fear- 
less, his  sacred  character  gave  him  an  influence  all-important 
in  the  Spanish  courts  of  the  period,  which  was  enhanced  by  his 
recognized  disinterestedness.  Single-handed,  he  time  and  again 
overthrew  the  combinations  organized  by  the  powerful  influ- 
ences which  he  antagonized,  but  the  evils  of  corrupt  administra- 

F  I  4  l   I 


I2O  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

tion  were  ineradicable  and  his  triumphs  in  Spain  were  per- 
sistently neutralized  by  defeats  in  the  Caribbean.  Neverthe- 
less he  struggled  unweariedly  to  the  last,  and  when  advancing 
age  rendered  active  work  impossible,  his  tireless  pen  was  still 
employed  in  the  good  cause.  He  died  in  1566,  at  the  ripe  age 
of  92,  leaving  unfinished  MSS.  on  which  he  was  laboring  to  the 
end.  His  voluminous  writings  are  the  source  of  most  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  subject;  some  of  his  shorter  tracts  he  gathered 
together  and  printed  in  a  small  volume  at  Seville  in  1552;  the 
rest  he  left  to  the  care  of  posterity,  and  it  is  only  of  recent  years 
that  those  which  have  been  preserved  have  seen  the  light,  in 
the  Coleccion  de  Documentos  ineditos  para  la  Historia  de  Espana, 
accompanied  with  illustrative  documents,  and  a  detailed  biogra- 
phy by  Senor  Fabie.  The  life  of  Las  Casas  was  so  intimately 
bound  up  with  the  fate  of  the  Indians  that  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  influences  which  controlled  their  treatment  by  the 
Spaniards  can  best  be  obtained  by  following  his  career. 

In  the  little  Seville  volume  the  most  noteworthy  portion  is 
the  Brevisima  Relation  de  la  destruycion  de  las  Yndias,  written 
in  1542,  for  the  instruction  of  Charles  V  and  his  advisers,  who 
were  engaged  in  framing  a  new  body  of  legislation  for  the 
Indies.  A  more  terrible  story  never  shocked  humanity. 
Horrors  are  piled  upon  horrors  until  the  sense  becomes  blunted 
and  one  scarce  realizes  the  savagery  which  had  continued  unin- 
terruptedly in  one  region  after  another  for  half  a  century. 
Doubtless  there  is  eloquent  exaggeration  in  the  recital;  Las 
Casas  was  not  a  coldly  scientific  historian,  but  an  advocate  and 
a  preacher,  who  gathered  hearsay  evidence  from  all  sources  and 
heightened  the  pathos  of  his  narrative  with  his  own  warm  sym- 
pathies; but  the  general  facts  are  corroborated  by  too  many 
contemporary  authorities  to  justify  the  attempts  at  exculpation 
which  have  been  fashionable  of  late  years.  We  may  reasonably 
doubt  his  accuracy  when  he  says  that  since  the  discovery  the 
Spanish  had  destroyed,  by  cruelty  and  oppression,  more  than 
twelve  millions  of  Indians,  including  men,  women  and  children, 
and  he  verily  thinks  the  number  is  more  than  fifteen  millions; 
nor  is  our  confidence  heightened  when,  in  1550,  he  asserts  that 
up  to  that  time  the  destruction  had  increased  to  thirty  millions 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  121 

and  in  1560  he  puts  the  figure  at  forty  millions,1  but  there  can 
be  no  question  that  the  mortality  by  the  sword  and  by  the 
inhuman  slavery  to  which  the  Indians  were  reduced  was  fright- 
ful. In  1517  a  cooler  statement  by  the  Dominicans  of  His- 
panola  informs  us  that  when  the  first  count  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  island  was  made  they  were  found  to  number  1,100,000; 
some  years  later  a  census  reduced  the  figures  to  16,000,  and  at 
the  time  of  writing  there  were  but  10,000  left.2  This  is  virtually 
confirmed  by  Alonso  de  Zuazo,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  Car- 
dinal Ximenes  with  full  powers  of  investigation,  and  who,  in  an 
official  report  to  Chievres,  January  22,  1519,  states  that  at 
the  discovery  the  population  was  1,130,000,  which  had  been 
reduced  to  11,000,  and  that  these  would  disappear  in  three  or 
four  years  if  no  remedy  was  applied.3  It  was  much  the  same  in 
Mexico,  although  the  more  warlike  character  of  the  natives  and 
the  features  of  the  country  rendered  the  process  slower.  About 
1595,  Padre  Mendieta  compares  the  crowded  towns  and  popu- 
lous country  which  he  had  seen  in  the  earlier  days  with  the 
deserted  cities  and  rural  solitudes  that  now  everywhere  met  the 
eye,  and  Bancroft  informs  us  that  at  the  close  of  the  century  it 
was  estimated  that  the  Indians  numbered  only  one-fourth  of 
what  they  had  been  at  the  time  of  the  conquest.4 

The  rapidity  of  the  Spanish  conquest  is  partially  explained  by 
this  ruthless  extermination,  for,  as  labor  became  scarce,  slave- 
hunting  expeditions,  attended  with  fearful  loss  of  life,  were 
organized  from  Hispanola.  Thus  Puertorico  fell  a  victim,  then 
Jamaica  and  then  Cuba.  By  1510  the  Bahamas  were  virtually 
depopulated,  and  the  discovery  of  Florida  was  due  to  dis- 
appointed slave-hunters,  who  found  no  one  to  carry  off  from  the 
Bahamas,  and  who  pushed  on  to  the  mainland.5  The  Wind- 

1  Brevtsima  Relation   (Ed.    Venet.,    1643,    p.    n)  ;    Las  Casas,  Historia  de  las 
Indias,  Lib.  Ill,   Cap.  137,    155  (Coleccidn  de  Documentos,  Tom.   XLVI,  pp.   75, 
164). 

2  Hist,  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  94  (T.  LXV,  p.   338).     Las  Casas  assumes 
the  original  population  of  Hispanola  to  have  been  three  or  four  millions  (Ibid., 
Cap.  19,  T.  LXIV,  p.  452). 

3  Col.  de  Doc.,  T.  II,  p.  353. 

4  Mendieta,  Hist.  Edesiastica  Indiana,  p.  561  (Mexico,  1870). — Bancroft,  Hist, 
of  Mexico,  II,  767. 

5  Hist,  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  20  (Col.  de  Doc.,  T.  LXIV,  p.  457). 


122  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

ward  Islands  were  raided  in  the  same  way,  although  the  fierce 
Carib  cannibals  were  harder  to  capture.  The  coasts  of  Tierra 
Firme  were  harried,  and  from  Cuba  to  Yucatan  the  transit  was 
easy.  All  around  the  Caribbean  the  slave-hunter  opened  the 
way  to  the  Conquistador.  Zuazo  tells  us  that  Ferdinand  the 
Catholic  authorized  this  hideous  traffic  to  remedy  the  lack  of 
labor,  which  was  so  scarce  that  an  Indian  duly  branded  as  a  slave 
was  known  to  have  fetched  the  enormous  price  of  eighty 
ducats.1  Indian  slavery,  in  fact,  was  subsequently  rendered 
unlawful,  except  for  crime,  and  the  slave  was  designated  by 
branding  in  the  face,  though  Las  Casas  told  Philip  II  that  the 
royal  branding-iron  was  promiscuously  applied  and  that  all 
slaves  thus  marked  ought  to  be  adjudged  free  by  the  courts.2 
During  the  conquest  of  Central  America  and  Mexico  he  says 
that  they  were  captured  in  numbers  far  beyond  the  capacity  of 
vessels  to  carry  them  away,  and  when  brought  down  to  the  coast 
an  Indian  would  be  exchanged  for  a  cheese  or  a  hundred  for  a 
horse.3 

There  were  two  causes  at  work  in  this  extermination — a  tem- 
porary one  in  the  callous  cruelty  of  the  conquerors,  and  a  per- 
manent one  in  the  brutal  oppression  which  worked  the  unhappy 
natives  to  death  in  the  mines  and  fields  and  on  the  roads.  The 
Spaniards  who  sought  the  New  World  were  largely  of  the 
vilest  class,  either  criminals  escaping  from  justice  or  punished 
by  transportation.  By  the  returning  fleet  of  1498,  Columbus 
begged  the  sovereigns  to  send  out  some  good  fraiks,  rather, 
as  he  says,  to  reform  the  faith  of  the  Christians  than  to  spread 
it  among  the  Indians,  and  in  their  formal  memorial  of  1517  the 
Dominicans  of  Hispanola  described  the  colonists  as  the  most 
infamous  race  of  men  that  ever  was  known.4  The  secular 
clergy  who  sought  their  fortunes  in  the  New  World  were  scarce 
better,  and  could  exercise  no  restraining  influence.  Even  in 

1  Col.  de  Doc.,  T.  II,  p.  355. 

8  Recopiladtn  de  las  Leyes  de  las  Indias,  Ley  I,  Tit.  ii.  Lib.   VI.— Fabie,    Vida 
(Col.  de  Doc.,  T.  LXX,  p.  165). 

3 Brevisima  Relacidn,  p.  70. 

*Hist.  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  I,  Cap.   155  (Col.   de  Doc.   T.   LXIII,  p.   34*)  J  Lib. 
Ill,  Cap.  94  (T.  LXV,  p.  341). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  123 

1551,  the  Mexican  Viceroy,  Antonio  de  Mendoza,  in  the 
instructions  drawn  up  for  his  successor,  Luis  de  Velasco,  says 
that  the  clergy  who  come  out  are  infamous,  and  if  it  were  not 
for  the  orders  of  the  king  and  for  baptism  the  Indians  would 
be  better  without  them.1  Colonists  of  this  character,  when 
brought  into  contact  with  weak  and  submissive  fellow-creatures, 
were  not  likely  to  restrain  their  worst  instincts,  and  they  treated 
the  Indians  with  less  compassion  than  if  they  were  beasts  of  the 
field.  The  merciless  slaughter  of  war  was  followed  by  torture  to 
discover  hidden  treasure  and  with  purposeless  cruelty  to  gratify 
pure  bloodthirstiness.  The  edge  of  weapons  was  tested  on 
defenceless  wretches  and  we  hear  of  killing  fat  Indians  to  make 
of  their  fat  an  ointment  supposed  to  have  peculiar  virtues.  We 
might  hope  that  these  were  fables,  but  the  reckless  disregard  of 
human  life  and  suffering  has  left  an  imperishable  linguistic 
trace  in  the  terrible  word  aperrear — >to  throw  to  the  dogs,  not 
metaphorically,  but  literally,  like  the  ad  bestias  mittere  of  the 
Romans.  The  perros  bravos  or  ferocious  dogs,  which  were 
brought  by  the  colonists  to  aid  them  in  hunting  down  Indians, 
were  the  objects  of  the  utmost  terror  to  the  natives,  who  were 
frequently  thrown  to  them  to  be  torn  to  pieces,  and  children 
were  sometimes  cut  up  and  fed  to  them.2  This  denial  of  the 
rights  of  humanity  does  not  rest  upon  the  assertions  of  those 
who  strove  to  protect  the  sufferers.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Bernardo  de  Vargas  Machuca,  Governor  of 
Margarita,  a  valiant  captain,  who  had  served  for  thirty  years  in 

1Col.  de  Doc.  T.  XXVI,  p.  286.  Oviedo  (Quinquagenas  de  la  Nobleza  de 
Espana  I,  383)  speaks  of  the  licentiousness  of  the  colonial  clergy  as  inviting  the 
destruction  of  the  colonies  ;  even  as  the  marriage  of  the  Greek  priests  had  been 
punished  by  their  subjugation  under  the  Turks.  Cortes,  who  had  at  first  asked 
to  have  bishoprics  erected,  speedily  changed  his  mind  and  requested  Charles  V 
to  send  out  only  friars,  for  he  said  the  priests  of  the  Indians  were  held  to  such 
rigid  rules  of  modesty  and  chastity  that  if  they  should  see  the  pomp  and  dis- 
orderly lives  of  the  Spanish  hierarchy  they  would  regard  the  Christian  religion 
as  a  farce  and  their  conversion  would  be  impracticable.  Charles  saw  the  wis- 
dom of  this  and  during  the  rest  of  his  reign  the  bishops  appointed  belonged  to 
the  religious  orders  and  secular  clergy  were  sparingly  permitted  to  go  to  the 
colonies  (Torquemada,  de  la  Monarquia  Indiana,  T.  Ill,  pp.  2,  3,  Ed.  1723). 

2  See  a  letter  of  the  Dominicans  of  Hispafiola  to  Chievres  (Col.  de  Doc. 
LXX,  423),  also  one  of  Las  Casas,  Jan.  20,  1535,  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies 
(Ibid.,  p.  464). 


124  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

the  New  World,  wrote  a  work  in  defence  of  his  fellow-colonists 
against  the  accusations  of  Las  Casas,  the  whole  texture  of  which 
reveals  profound  unconsciousness  that  the  Indian  had  any  claim 
to  consideration  as  a  human  being.  He  sees  nothing  to  reprove 
in  the  good  missionary  who,  after  preaching  on  the  pains  of 
purgatory,  offered  to  exhibit  them  to  any  who  were  curious. 
Two  Indians  presented  themselves,  whom  he  bound  to  a  stake, 
build  a  circle  of  wood  around  them,  set  it  on  fire  and  roasted 
them  to  death.  For  this  freak  he  was  tried  by  his  archbishop, 
but  on  protesting  that  it  was  by  mistake  that  he  had  neglected 
to  rake  away  the  fire  in  time,  he  was  sent  back  to  the  mission 
to  resume  his  pious  labors.  Still  more  significant  is  a  hideous 
story  which  he  tells  to  illustrate  his  thesis,  that  the  sufferings  of 
the  Indians  were  mostly  attributable  to  the  mistaken  tenderness 
shown  to  them  by  the  chapetones — a  derisive  name  applied  to 
newly  arrived  officials  from  Spain,  who  had  not  had  time 
enough  to  become  hardened.  In  an  Indian  village  named 
Hontibon,  near  Santafe  de  Bogota,  a  Spanish  soldier  quarrelled 
with  a  native  and  struck  him  repeatedly  in  the  face.  The  vil- 
lagers collected  at  the  cries  of  the  sufferer  and  their  aspect  was 
so  threatening  that  the  soldier  surrendered  and  was  bound  and 
carried  somewhat  roughly  before  the  judge  in  Santafe.  The 
latter,  in  place  of  scolding  the  Indians  for  their  audacity,  actually 
reproved  the  soldier,  fined  him  and  imprisoned  him  for  a  few 
days.  Burning  to  avenge  himself,  he  bought  a  cross-bow  and 
fifty  arrows;  on  a  night  of  full  moon  he  stationed  himself  at  a 
bridge  on  the  high-road  near  Hontibon  and  when  an  Indian 
passed  he  asked  him  whence  he  came.  If  the  answer  was  "from 
Hontibon"  he  was  forthwith  despatched  and  his  corpse  flung 
into  the  river.  When  the  fifty  arrows  had  each  its  victim  the 
soldier  used  his  sword,  and  at  sunrise,  his  vengeance  being 
glutted,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  escaped  to  Peru.  Now  all 
this  slaughter,  Machuca  argues,  would  have  been  avoided  if  the 
judge  had  only  done  his  duty  in  punishing  the  Indians.1 

Destructive  as  was  this  supreme  contempt  for  the  lives  of 
the  subject  race,  the  leading  source  of  misery  and  extermination 
was  the  system  of  enforced  labor.  The  Spaniard  who  went  to 

1  Machuca,  Discorsos  Apoldxicos  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXXI,  228,  301). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  125 

the  colonies  did  not  go  to  support  himself,  but  to  be  supported 
b*y  the  labor  of  others.  As  Machuca  candidly  says,  in  his 
argument  to  prove  that  the  Indians  were  not  wantonly  de- 
stroyed, the  Spaniards  will  not  settle  in  an  unoccupied  land,  no 
matter  how  healthy  or  how  rich  in  gold  and  silver,  but  they  go 
where  there  are  Indians,  although  the  land  may  be  poor  and 
unhealthy,  for  if  they  have  not  Indians  to  work  for  them  they 
cannot  enjoy  what  the  land  produces  and  to  take  possession 
of  it  would  be  of  no  benefit.1  Now  the  alleged  object,  steadily 
asserted  throughout  the  Spanish  conquest,  was  the  propagation 
of  the  faith.  In  the  momentous  bull  Inter  c&tera  of  Alexander 
VI,  May  4,  1493,  bestowing  on  the  sovereigns  of  Castile  all 
lands  discovered  in  the  Western  world,  the  sole  motive  alluded 
to  is  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  and  the  bringing  of  the  heathen 
into  the  fold  of  Christ.2  In  the  codicil  executed  by  Queen 
Isabella,  November  23,  1504,  three  days  before  her  death,  she 
declares  that  her  intention  in  obtaining  the  papal  bull  was  to 
propagate  the  faith,  and  she  charges  her  husband  and  children 
to  regard  this  as  the  main  object  and  to  take  the  utmost  care 
that  the  Indians  be  treated  justly  and  sustain  no  wrong.3  So 
on  all  occasions  the  moral  and  spiritual  elevation  of  the  natives 
was  asserted  to  be  the  motive  of  the  extension  of  Spanish  dom- 
ination. It  was  not  easy  to  reconcile  this  with  the  system 
of  repartimientos  or  encomiendas — allotting  Indians  to  Spaniards 
to  work  the  mines  and  cultivate  the  fields  of  their  masters, 
which  commenced  even  under  Columbus  in  1496,  and  spread 
in  its  development  like  a  upas  tree  over  all  the  Spanish  colonies.4 
The  theologians,  however,  were  as  usual  equal  to  the  occasion 
and  their  dialectics  sufficed  to  quiet  all  scruples  of  conscience. 
Isabella  was  firmly  resolved  that  her  new  vassals  should  be 
freemen;  when,  in  1498,  the  returning  fleet  brought  six  hun- 
dred Indians  as  slaves,  of  whom  two  hundred  were  given  to  the 
shipmasters  to  pay  the  freight  on  the  rest,  she  was  justly  indig- 
nant; she  ordered  them  all  to  be  surrendered,  under  pain  of 

1Ibid.,  p.  220. 

8  Mag.  Bullar.  Roman,  I.  454  (Ed.  Luxemb.). 

3  Mariana,  Hist,  de  Espaita,  Ed.  1796,  Tom.  IX.  Append.,  p.  xxvi. 

4  Fabie,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  377). 


126  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

death,  and  she  gathered  them  together  and  sent  them  home — 
one  of  them,  by  a  curious  coincidence,  being  a  boy  given  to 
Bartolome  de  Las  Casas  by  his  father.1      Yet  even  Isabella's 
scruples  gave  way  to  the  arguments  that  the  Indians  were  per- 
versely idle;  idleness  was  a  sin,  and  to  eradicate  it  by  the  gentle 
enforcement  of  industry  brought  progress  in  the  path  of  Chris- 
tian virtue.     Moreover,  conversion  was  impossible  unless  the 
Indians  associated  with  Christians;    this  they  would  not  do 
willingly  and  some  coercion  was  imperative.     When,  therefore, 
in  1502,  Isabella  sent  Ovando  to  the  West  Indies  to  replace 
Bobadilla,  while  her  instructions  were  emphatic  that  the  free- 
dom of  the  Indians  should  be  maintained  and  that  they  should 
be  protected  from  all  wrong  like  her  vassals  of  Castile,  she 
followed  these  with  a  letter,  December  20,  1503,  empowering 
him  to  order  the  caciques  each  to  supply  a  given  number  of  men 
who  were  to  be  made  to  work,  as  freemen  and  not  as  slaves,  at 
such  reasonable  wages  as  he  might  designate;    they  were  .to 
receive  instruction  on  Sundays  and  feast-days;  they  were  to  be 
well  treated  and  any  one  wronging  them  was  to  be  fined  10,000 
maravedis.     Ovando  availed  himself  of  this  to  assign  to  each 
of  his  Spaniards  a  cacique  with  his  subjects,  so  that  all,  men, 
women  and  children,  were  practically  reduced  to  slavery,  and 
although  there  was  an  admonition  to  instruct  them  in  the  faith, 
this  was  purely  formal.2     The  system  was  legalized  by  Ferdi- 
nand in  cedulas  of  August  14,  and  November  12,  1509,  ordering 
that  as  soon  as  natives  are  reduced  to  obedience  the  governor 
shall  allot  them  among  the  settlers,  each  of  whom  shall  have 
charge  of  those  assigned  to  him,  protecting  them,  providing 
a  priest  to  instruct  and  administer  the  sacraments  to  them  and 
training  them  in  civilization.3     Thus  was  inaugurated  the  sys- 
tem of  repartimientos  or  encomiendas,  which  remained  as  the 
organization  of  the  Spanish  colonies.     It  mattered  little  what 
humane  regulations  might  be  prescribed  by  the  sovereigns;  the 
colonies  were  distant;   the  colonists  were  eager  in  the  pursuit 

*Hist.  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  I,  Cap.  155  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXIII,  340).— Fabie,    Vida 
(ubi  sup.,  p.  u). 

*  Hist,  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  II,  Cap.  13,  14  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXIV,  71,  81). 
3  Recopilacidn,  Leyes  i,  2,  Tit.  viii,  Lib.  VI. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  127 

of  wealth  and  utterly  unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  of  gaining 
it;  the  Indians  were  slaves  in  all  but  name,  without  the  protec- 
tion afforded  by  ownership;  under  the  lash  they  were  worked 
beyond  their  strength  with  insufficient  food,  nor  was  there 
decent  consideration  for  women  big  with  child  or  exhausted 
by  child-birth,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  melted  away 
like  hoar-frost  in  the  sun.  The  mining  of  the  precious  metals 
cost  its  millions,  but  perhaps  even  more  deadly  were  the  tasks 
imposed  on  them  as  carriers,  for  the  islands  afforded  no  native 
beasts  of  burden,  imported  horses  were  too  valuable  to  be 
employed  in  such  work,  and  all  transportation  was  performed 
by  Indians,  who  were  overloaded  and  goaded  till  they  perished. 
There  is  doubtless  exaggeration  in  one  of  the  accusations 
brought  against  Fernando  Pizarro  during  his  trial  in  Madrid — 
that  he  had  slain  more  than  twenty  thousand  infants  torn  from 
the  breasts  of  their  mothers  in  order  to  use  the  latter  in  carrying 
supplies  for  his  troops,  but  the  formulation  of  such  a  charge  in 
a  legal  prosecution  shows  that  it  was  not  considered  at  the 
time  to  be  an  improbability.1  When  Machuca  reproaches  the 
Indians  with  their  proneness  to  suicide  and  infanticide,  he  merely 
exhibits  to  us  their  hopeless  despair  for  themselves  and  their 
offspring.2 

The  civilizing  intercourse  with  Christians,  whereby  Isabella 
hoped  to  spread  the  faith,  was  evidently  a  failure;  in  the  frenzied 
pursuit  of  wealth  the  encomendero  gave  his  wretched  bondsmen 
no  leisure  for  religious  instruction,  and  the  hatred  which  he 
excited  naturally  extended  to  his  religion.  As  Juan  Fernando 
de  Angelo,  Bishop  of  Santa  Marta,  wrote  to  Charles  V  about 
1540,  "In  these  parts  there  are  no  Christians,  but  only  demons 
*  *  *  *  as  for  the  Indians,  nothing  is  more  abhorrent  to 
them  than  the  name  of  Christians,  whom  they  call  in  their  lan- 
guage yares,  which  means  demons,  and  they  are  right,  for  the 
works  which  are  wrought  here  are  not  of  Christians,  nor  of  men 

1  Fabie,  Vida  (Col.   de  Doc.  LXX,   236).     This  employment  as  carriers  was 
recognized  as  one  of  the  most  cruel  hardships  inflicted  on  the  Indians.     Las 
Casas  recurs  to  it  frequently  and  the  sovereigns  in  vain  endeavored  to  suppress 
or  to  limit  it.     See  Recopilacidn,  Leyes  6-18,  Tit.  xii,  Lib.  VI. 

2  Col.  de  Doc.  LXXI,  227. 


128  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

endowed  with  reason,  but  of  demons."1  It  mattered  little  that 
the  sovereigns  were  careful,  in  the  commissions  and  instructions 
issued  to  the  Conquistadores,  to  keep  ever  before  them  that 
their  first  duty  was  to  evangelize  the  heathen ;  few  missionaries 
at  first  went  over  seas  and  these  found  the  conditions  too 
adverse  for  success.  It  is  true  that  in  the  voyage  of  1 500,  two 
Franciscans  sailed,  who  boasted  that  they  baptized  three  thou- 
sand Indians  in  the  first  port  of  Hispanola  '  at  which  they 
touched;2  other  Franciscans  accompanied  Ovando  in  1502,  but 
they  did  nothing  to  convert  the  Indians  or  to  alleviate  their 
miseries.3  It  was  not  until  1510,  when  Fay  Pedro  de  Cordova 
arrived  with  two  fellow  Dominicans,  to  be  joined  shortly  after- 
wards by  ten  or  twelve  more,  that  any  sustained  attempt  was 
made  to  give  religious  instruction,  and  we  are  told  that  on  the 
afternoons  of  Sundays  and  feast-days,  multitudes  flocked  to  hear 
the  good  frailes,  who  had  won  general  regard  by  their  austere 
simplicity.  Filled  with  profound  compassion  for  the  sufferings  of 
the  helpless  creatures  whom  they  had  come  to  convert,  they  felt, 
after  a  residence  of  about  a  year,  that  it  was  their  duty  to  utter 
the  first  protest  against  the  abominations  existing  around  them. 
After  anxious  prayer  and  discussion  they  drew  up  a  sermon 
which  Pedro  de  Cordova  ordered  Anton  Montesino,  a  fervid 
and  fearless  preacher,  to  deliver  on  the  fourth  Sunday  in 
Advent,  1511,  and  to  it  they  invited  the  admiral,  Diego  Colon, 
and  all  the  royal  officials  and  jurists.  The  sermon  was  a  terrify- 
ing one,  exposing  the  wickedness  of  the  Spaniards  and  assuring 
them  that  they  had  no  more  chance  of  salvation  than  so  many 
Turks.  It  created  great  excitement;  in  the  afternoon  the  offi- 
cials assembled  in  the  residence  of  the  admiral,  who  accom- 
panied them  to  the  humble  Dominican  house,  where  the  frailes 
were  required,  under  threat  of  expulsion  from  the  island,  to 
preach  a  sermon  of  recantation.  They  professed  readiness  to 
go  at  any  moment,  but  finally  promised  that  Montesino  should 
endeavor  to  satisfy  them  on  the  next  Sunday.  Word  of  the 
expected  revocation  was  passed  around  and  the  whole  popula- 

l-Brevisima  Relacidn^  p.\8i. 

• 

5Chron.  Glassberger,  ann.  1500  (Ad  Claras  Aquas,  1887). 

3  Hist,  de  las  Indias,  Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  5,  14  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXIV    372,  423). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  129 

tion  crowded  into  the  church;  Montesino  mounted  the  pulpit 
and  delivered  a  denunciation  more  fiery  than  before,  telling 
them  that  the  brethren  would  no  more  receive  them  to  confes- 
sion and  absolution  than  so  many  highway  robbers,  and  that 
they  might  write  home  what  they  pleased  to  whom  they 
pleased.1 

The  fury  of  the  colonists  found  vent  in  letters  to  the  court 
describing  the  fearful  scandal  caused  by  the  Dominicans,  who 
consigned  them  all  to  hell  because  they  employed  the  Indians 
in  the  mines  as  the  king  had  ordered — a  doctrine  destructive 
of  the  royal  power  and  revenues,  for  twenty  per  cent,  of  the 
product  went  to  the  crown.  This  caused  great  disturbance  at 
home,  where  powerful  officials  were  interested  in  the  abuses  in 
the  colony.  Conchillos,  the  royal  secretary,  was  one  of  these, 
and  so  was  Fonseca,  Bishop  of  Burgos,  who  enjoyed  Ferdi- 
nand's confidence  and  had  the  control  of  Indian  affairs.  Ferdi- 
nand summoned  the  Dominican  provincial  of  Castile  and 
ordered  him  to  repair  the  scandals  caused  by  his  frailes  or  he 
would  see  to  it  himself.2 

A  still  more  effective  measure  of  the  colonial  government  was 
the  sending  to  Spain  of  the  Franciscan  superior,  Alonso  del 
Espinal,  whose  principal  convent  was  supported  by  an  allot- 
ment of  Indians.  When  the  Dominicans  heard  of  this  they 
resolved  to  send  Montesino  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  natives; 
with  no  little  difficulty  they  begged  enough  provisions  for  his 
voyage  and  the  two  frailes  sailed  in  different  ships.  Espinal 
hurried  to  the  court,  where  he  was  received  as  an  angel  of  light 
and  Ferdinand  ordered  that  he  should  be  admitted  to  audience 
at  all  times.  Montesino  first  reported  to  his  provincial  and 
when  he  reached  the  court  he  found  every  avenue  closed.  The 
usher  persistently  refused  him  admittance  to  the  king,  till  one 
day,  when  the  door  was  opened  to  let  some  one  out,  he  forced 
his  way  in  and  read  to  Ferdinand  a  long  memorial  recounting 
the  slaughters  and  cruelties  and  miseries  inflicted  on  his  subjects. 

Ubid.,  Lib.  II,  Cap.   54;  Lib.   Ill,   Cap.   3,  4,   5   (Col.   de  Doc.   LXIV,  273, 
361  sqq.). 

2  Ibid.  (LXIV,  370). 
9 


130  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

Ferdinand  was  astonished  and  moved  and  willingly  granted  the 
request  of  Montesino  to  apply  a  remedy.1 

The  time  had  evidently  arrived  to  frame  a  systematic  body 
of  laws  regulating  the  relations  between  colonists  and  natives 
in  the  widening  sphere  of  Spanish  domination.  To  accomplish 
this  Ferdinand  summoned  to  Burgos,  where  the  court  was  then 
residing,  a  conference  of  learned  doctors  and  masters  of  law  and 
theology.  They  were  for  the  most  part  well-meaning  men,  but 
at  their  head  was  Bishop  Fonseca  and  they  were  surrounded 
by  courtiers  interested  in  the  preservation  of  abuses,  while  the 
Indians  had  no  advocate  but  Montesino,  until  near  the  close  of 
the  proceedings,  when  he  was  joined  by  Pedro  de  Cordova,  who 
had  hurried  to  Spain  on  receiving  the  letters  written  by  his 
provincial  at  Ferdinand's  order.  The  result  was  a  foregone 
conclusion,  but  there  is  instruction  in  the  theological  argu- 
ments by  which  the  royal  conscience  was  soothed.  Fray  Ber- 
nardo de  Mesa,  one  of  the  king's  preachers,  presented  a  thesis 
in  which  he  proved  dialectically  that  although  the  Indians  were 
free,  yet  idleness  was  one  of  the  greatest  evils  under  which  they 
suffered  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  king  to  relieve  them  of  it, 
and,  as  they  were  prone  to  it,  absolute  liberty  was  injurious  to 
them.  Besides,  they  were  naturally  inconstant,  being  islanders, 
and  the  moon  is  the  mistress  of  the  waters  surrounding  them. 
He  therefore  concluded  that  it  was  necessary  to  hold  them  in 
some  kind  of  servitude  to  cure  their  vicious  inclinations  and 
constrain  them  to  industry,  and  this  was  in  conformity  with  the 
goodness  of  God.  Another  royal  preacher,  the  Licenciate 
Gregorio,  reached  the  same  result  with  learned  citations  from 
Aristotle,  Aquinas,  Duns  Scotus,  St.  Antonino  of  Florence,  and 
Agostino  da  Ancona,  and  the  fate  of  helpless  millions  was  made 
to  turn  on  scholastic  word-spinning  such  as  this.  The  confer- 
ence resulted  in  seven  propositions  which,  while  recognizing 
the  freedom  of  the  Indians  and  their  right  to  humane  treat- 
ment, concluded  that  they  must  be  subjected  to  coercion  and  be 
kept  in  communication  with  the  Spaniards  in  order  to  promote 
their  conversion — and  when  these  points  were  once  admitted 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  6  (LXIV,  pp.  376  sqq.). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  131 

everything  depended  on  the  administration  of  greedy  officials 
at  a  distance  of  fifteen  hundred  leagues.1 

On  the  basis  thus  laid  down  a  council  was  assembled  which 
proceeded  to  frame  thirty-two  laws — known  as  the  Laws  of 
Burgos,  promulgated  December  27,  1512 — for  the  regulation  of 
the  existing  and  all  future  colonies.  They  embodied  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  Indians  must  be  rescued  from  idleness  by  enforced 
labor,  to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  a  ducat  a  year,  and  even  the 
caciques  were  to  be  made  to  work  at  light  tasks.  The  failure 
of  their  conversion  was  attributed  to  their  having  been  allowed 
to  live  in  their  homes  and  villages,  so  they  were  required  to  be 
brought  to  the  residence  of  their  masters,  but  at  least  one-third 
were  to  be  drafted  to  the  mines.  There  were  various  humani- 
tarian regulations  introduced,  but,  as  there  was  no  adequate 
machinery  provided  for  their  enforcement,  they  were  of  course 
nugatory.  Just  as  the  code  was  being  completed  Pedro  de 
Cordova  arrived;  he  saw  that  it  meant  the  destruction  of  the 
Indians  and  so  informed  Ferdinand,  who  empowered  him  to 
modify  the  laws  at  his  pleasure  and  promised  that  he  would  see 
them  obeyed,  but  Pedro  shrank  from  the  responsibility  and  the 
Indians  lost  their  only  chance.  Ferdinand,  however,  ordered 
a  revision  by  a  junta  with  Bishop  Fonseca  at  its  head  and  the 
royal  confessor,  Tomas  de  Matienza,  as  one  of  its  members. 
Before  this  body  Pedro  de  Cordova  appeared  and  argued,  but  to 
no  effect;  it  reported  to  the  king,  under  God  and  conscience, 
that  he  was  fully  justified  in  making  the  Indians  work  and  in 
granting  their  services  to  whom  he  pleased.  Thus  the  project 
was  adopted,  with  a  few  trifling  additions,  so  that  the  whole, 
as  Las  Casas  tells  us,  was  iniquitous  and  cruel,  with  some  laws 
that  were  impossible  and  others  that  were  worse  than  bar- 
barous.2 

As  the  keepers  of  the  royal  conscience  had  decided  that  it 
was  for  the  service  of  God  that  the  king  should  partition  out 
the  Indians,  the  courtiers  at  once  applied  for  grants.  Bishop 
Fonseca  obtained  200  serfs  in  each  of  the  four  islands,  Secretary 
Conchillos  secured  1,100  in  all  and  numerous  others  200  apiece. 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  8,  9,  12  (LXIV,  pp.  386,  392,  410). 

2  Ibid.,  Cap.  13,  15,  16,  17  (LXIV,  pp.  417  sqq.). 


132  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

Moreover,  all  the  royal  officials  in  the  islands,  and  the  judges  of 
appeal,  who  were  sent  there  in  1511  and  1512,  received  allot- 
ments in  addition  to  their  salaries,  so  that  the  system  was 
buttressed  in  the  court,  while  in  the  colonies  those  who  should 
have  restrained  its  abuses  profited  by  them.  The  courtiers  sent 
out  agents  to  work  their  Indians,  which  they  did  inexorably  and 
pitilessly;  as  the  wretches  died  off  they  claimed  that  the  number 
should  be  made  up;  as  there  were  not  enough  to  go  around 
a  new  deal  would  be  made  and  those,  who  had  not  influence 
were  stripped;  these,  seeing  that  they  were  liable  at  any  time 
to  lose  their  serfs,  thought  it  better  to  work  them  to  death,  and 
in  this  frenzied  covetousness  no  laws  protecting  the  natives 
were  observed.1  Zuazo,  writing  in  1519,  attributes  their 
destruction  to  the  allotments,  aggravated  by  the  successive 
distributions  which  greedy  courtiers  succeeded  in  having  made. 
Under  these  they  were  shifted  from  one  master  to  another  and 
from  the  mountains  to  the  lowlands  and  vice  versa,  resulting  in 
their  perishing  by  thousands  through  disease.2 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  Las  Casas  undertook  what 
was  to  prove  his  life-work.  He  had  returned  from  Cuba  deeply 
impressed  with  the  cruelty  of  the  conquest,  and  when  Pedro  de 
Cordova  came  back  from  Spain  they  consulted  together  as  to 
the  remedy.  Pedro  told  him  that  nothing  could  be  done  so 
long  as  Ferdinand  lived,  for  he  placed  entire  confidence  in 
Fonseca  and  Conchillos,  and  they  as  well  as  other  members 
of  the  royal  council  held  too  many  Indians  to  consent  to  any 
reform.  The  ardor  of  Las  Casas,  however,  was  not  to  be 
balked;  he  sailed  in  September,  1515,  and  in  Seville  Archbish6p 
Deza  gave  him  a  letter  to  Ferdinand  with  which  in  December 
he  went  to  Plasencia.  December  23,  he  had  an  audience  in 
which  he  dwelt  eloquently  on  the  atrocities  inflicted  on  the 
Indians;  the  king  promised  redress;  he  was  about  starting  for 
Seville,  and  when  there  he  would  consider  the  matter  thoroughly. 
At  Seville  Las  Casas  awaited  his  coming,  only  to  receive  the  news 
of  his  death,  January  23,  1516.  It  is  a  tribute  to  Ferdinand's 
character  that  Las  Casas  regards  this  as  a  great  misfortune  for 
the  Indians,  for  he  felt  confident  that  the  king  would  have  put 
an  end  to  their  wrongs.3 

1  Ibid.  Cap.  19  (p.  450).        2  Col.  de  Doc.  II,  35L        3  Ibid.,  Cap.  84  (LXV,  277). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  133 

This  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  disappointments,  which 
would  have  disheartened  a  man  of  less  tenacity  of  purpose,  but 
Las  Casas  forthwith  resolved  to  go  to  Flanders  and  win  over 
to  his  views  the  young  sovereign  Charles.  His  first  move,  how- 
ever, was  to  Madrid,  where  he  presented  a  memorial  in  Spanish 
to  Cardinal  Ximenes,  and  one  in  Latin  to  Cardinal  Adrian, — the 
governors  of  Spain,  in  the  absence  of  the  new  king.  Adrian  was 
horrified  at  what  he  read  and  asked  Ximenes  if  it  could  be  true. 
Ximenes  confirmed  it  and  then  advised  Las  Casas  not  to  go  to 
Flanders,  for  they  would  settle  the  matter  to  his  satisfaction  in 
Spain.  Bishop  Fonseca  was  deprived  of  authority  and  the  two 
cardinals  discussed  the  question  with  Las  Casas,  resulting  in  his 
being  commissioned  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  the  relief  of  the 
Indians,  which  he  did  on  the  basis  of  abolishing  the  repartimien- 
tos  and  making  provision  to  enable  the  Spaniards  to  live  by 
honest  labor.  This  was  accepted  by  Ximenes,  who  asked  Las 
Casas  to  undertake  the  task  of  finding  persons  suited  to  carry 
it  into  effect.  This  he  was  unable  to  do,  and  the  cardinal  con- 
cluded to  intrust  the  matter  to  monks  of  the  Geronimite  order, 
so  as  to  avoid  the  attrition  inevitable  between  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans.  Twelve  were  selected,  out  of  whom  Las  Casas 
chose  three,  but  while  the  necessary  papers  and  despatches  were 
being  drawn  up,  the  enemy  got  hold  of  them;  they  held  aloof 
from  Las  Casas,  and  when  they  reached  Hispafiola  they  fell 
completely  under  the  influence  of  the  colonists.  They  made 
no  attempt  to  execute  the  plan,  which  if  it  could  have  been 
carried  out  in  good  faith,  would  have  resulted  in  a  flourishing 
and  industrious  community,  where  settler  and  native  could  live 
together  in  amity.  There  was  an  unfortunate  clause,  however, 
added  by  the  royal  council,  providing  for  the  continuance  of  the 
repartimientos  in  case  it  should  be  found  that  the  Indians  could 
not  be  settled  in  agricultural  villages.  This  was  decided  against 
them  in  advance;  the  plan  was  never  even  tried,  and  when  the 
kinsmen  of  the  Geronimites  followed  them  and  were  shrewdly 
given  good  allotments  of  Indians  in  Cuba  by  Diego  Velazquez, 
there  was  no  further  hope  of  improvement.1  It  was  not  the 
first  nor  the  last  practical  application  of  a  formula,  dear  to  the 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  85-95  (LXV,  281  sqq.). 


134  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

colonists  when  unpopular  decrees  reached  them  from  over  sea — 
obedezcase  pero  no  se  cumpla — let  it  be  obeyed,  but  not  enforced. 

Ximenes  had  sent  Las  Casas  at  the  same  time  to  Hispanola 
with  a  kind  of  supervisory  power  which  proved  ineffective.  His 
letters  to  the  cardinal  were  intercepted  and,  finding  himself 
unable  to  accomplish  anything,  he  resolved  to  return  to  Spain. 
In  May,  1517,  he  sailed  and  in  fifty  days  he  reached  Aranda  de 
Duero,  where  he  found  Ximenes  breathing  his  last.  The 
youthful  Charles,  however,  had  just  arrived  to  take  possession 
of  his  kingdom  and  Las  Casas  lost  no  time  in  making  his  way 
to  the  court.  He  speedily  recognized  that  everything  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Flemish  counsellors  and  favorites,  and  he 
attached  himself  to  the  chancellor,  Jean  Le  Sauvage,  who  took 
him  into  favor  and  soon  relied  upon  him  for  everything  con- 
nected with  the  Indies.  An  incident,  at  this  time,  which  might 
have  exercised  a  controling  influence  on  the  destinies  of  the 
New  World,  illustrates  perfectly  the  government  of  the  young 
monarch.  News  came  of  the  discovery  of  Yucatan,  or  Mex- 
ico. The  Admiral  of  Flanders,  Adolf  of  Burgundy,  promptly 
asked  Charles  to  bestow  it  on  him  as  a  fief,  with  Cuba  as 
a  base  from  wrhich  to  colonize  it;  the  favorite  Chievres  had 
charge  of  royal  grants  and  favors  and,  as  neither  he  nor  his 
master  knew  anything  about  the  Indies,  the  request  was  granted 
as  readily  as  if  it  were  a  piece  of  meadow  land.  The  admiral 
sent  to  Flanders  and  in  due  time  there  arrived  at  San  Lucar 
five  vessels  loaded  with  Flemings  to  colonize  the  new  territory. 
Meanwhile  Las  Casas  had  informed  Diego  Colon  of  this 
infringement  on  his  rights;  Colon  made  reclamation  and  the 
chancellor  informed  the  admiral  that  the  grant  could  not  be 
confirmed  until  the  suit  was  decided,  which  Colon  had  brought 
to  enforce  the  claims  derived  from  his  father,  to  all  lands  dis- 
covered and  to  be  discovered.  Most  of  the  Flemings  brought 
to  San  Lucar  died,  and  the  rest  returned  home;  but  had  Mexico, 
Central  America  and  Cuba  been  settled  from  Flanders  and 
Holland  the  history  of  America  might  have  been  vastly  dif- 
ferent.1 

Le  Sauvage  brought  Las  Casas  to  the  favorable  notice  of 
Charles,  who  ordered  them  to  draw  up  a  plan  of  reform.  This 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  95,  99-101  (LXV,  343,  364  sqq.). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  135 

Las  Casas  eagerly  undertook  and  reproduced  his  previous 
project  with  some  amendments.  One  of  these  was  to  carry 
to  the  colonies  numbers  of  industrious  peasants  and  start  them 
there  with  a  view  to  building  up  a  self-supporting  population. 
This  came  to  nothing,  as  we  shall  see;  but  a  more  fateful  one 
was  the  suggestion  of  permitting  the  importation  of  a  few 
negroes.  Cardinal  Adrian  and  the  chancellor  approved  his 
plan  and  all  seemed  to  promise  fair,  although  Bishop  Fonseca 
had  regained  his  position,  it  was  supposed  by  bribing  Chievres. 
The  court  moved  to  Saragossa  and  Las  Casas  followed  it,  but 
fell  sick  by  the  way;  on  his  recovery  Fonseca  was  disabled  for 
five  weeks,  causing  further  postponement,  and  then  the  chan- 
cellor Le  Sauvage  died,  early  in  July,  1518,  after  which  Fonseca 
regained  his  former  influence.  Again  Penelope's  web  was 
unravelled  and  the  work  had  to  be  commenced  anew.1 

The  suggestion  as  to  negro  slaves,  however,  had  taken  root 
and  grown  like  other  evil  weeds.  It  had  come  to  Las  Casas 
from  colonists  who  had  told  him  that  if  they  could  get  license 
to  import  ten  or  a  dozen  negroes  they  would  willingly  release 
their  Indians.  The  idea  apparently  was  floating  in  the  air  of 
Hispanola,  for  Zuazo,  in  his  letter  of  January  22,  1519,  to 
Chievres,  says  that  the  importation  of  negroes  is  a  necessity, 
and  he  'asks,  if  it  cannot  be  made  general,  that  at  least  he  should 
have  authority  to  issue  licenses  for  bringing  in  a  hundred  from 
Spain;  they  should  be  from  15  to  20  years  of  age,  of  both  sexes, 
and  should  be  allowed  to  choose  their  masters  for  a  term  of  not 
over  one  year,  the  masters  being  married  settlers.  By  this  time, 
moreover,  after  an  abortive  attempt  in  1505-6,  the  sugar  indus- 
try was  beginning  to  establish  itself,  and  the  want  of  more 
athletic  labor  about  the  mills  than  that  of  Indians  was 
making  itself  felt.  On  its  face  there  was  nothing  about  the 
project  to  alarm  the  most  sensitive  conscience.  Under  the 
treaty  of  Tordesillas  the  trade  with  Africa  was  reserved  to  the 
Portuguese;  they  were  in  the  habit  of  bringing  negroes  to 
Spain  as  slaves,  and  there  would  seem  to  be  nothing  cruel  in 
transferring  a  few  of  these  to  the  West  Indies,  where  the  climate 
more  nearly  approached  that  of  their  native  land.  The  sugges- 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  102,  103  (LXV,  380  sqq.). 


136  Yale  Review. 

tion  of  Las  Casas  was  that  licenses  each  for  the  importation  of 
a  dozen  negroes  should  be  issued,  but  when  asked  how  many 
in  all  would  be  wanted,  he  replied  that  he  could  not  tell.  The 
questipn  was  then  put  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  of  Seville, 
which  regulated  the  colonial  trade,  and  it  estimated  the  num- 
ber at  four  thousand  for  the  four  islands.  The  chance  afforded 
for  jobbery  was  seized  at  once,  and  a  Flemish  favorite,  the 
Governor  of  Bresse,  begged  and  obtained  from  Charles  the 
right  to  issue  these  licenses.  This  he  promptly  sold  for  25,000 
ducats  to  some  Genoese  speculators,  who  made  it  a  condition 
that  no  more  licenses  should  be  sold  for  eight  years.  Las 
Casas  says  that  they  cleared  nearly  300,000  ducats  by  the  opera- 
tion, but  this  is  manifestly  an  exaggerated  estimate,  for  he  else- 
where tells  us  that  they  sold  them  at  about  eight  ducats  a  head. 
It  was  long  before  Las  Casas  recognized  his  mistake:  as  late 
as  1535,  in  a  letter  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  he  suggested 
that  five  or  six  hundred  negroes  he  sent  to  each  of  the  islands 
and  be  parcelled  out,  a  few  to  each  settler,  or  that  free  licenses 
be  issued  to  import  them.  Towards  the  close  of  his  life,  how- 
ever, he  bitterly  repented  his  error  and  recognized  that  he  had 
only  perpetuated  the  slavery  which  he  had  labored  to  abolish. 
He  would  not  for  the  world,  he  says,  have  made  so  grievous  a 
mistake;  he  had  supposed  that  the  negroes  in  Spain  had  been 
justly  enslaved,  but  he  doubts  whether  his  ignorance  and  care- 
lessness will  excuse  him  before  the  divine  judgment.  The  trade 
grew  rapidly  and,  writing  about  1560,  he  says  that  there  had 
been  some  40,000  carried  to  Hispanola  and  100,000  to  the 
Indies,  for  the  sugar  mills  required  them  in  increasing  numbers, 
and  from  the  profits  derived  from  licenses  and  dues  the  king 
had  built  the  alcazares  of  Madrid  and  Toledo.  The  Portuguese, 
who  had  long  been  stealing  negroes  in  Guinea,  were  stimulated 
to  greater  activity  in  their  nefarious  traffic,  and  the  natives  made 
war  with  each  other  to  capture  slaves  for  sale.  In  Hispanola 
they  died  rapidly  from  overwork,  and  from  the  liquor  which 
they  made  from  the  cane-juice,  while  many  escaped  to  the 
mountains,  after  killing  their  masters,  and  became  Cimarrones 
or  Maroons,  so  that  the  people  lived  in  constant  dread.1 

!Ibid.,  Cap.  102,  129  (LXV,  379;  LXVI,  28)  ;  Tom.   LXX,   p.  484;  Tom.    II, 
PP-  370,  374- 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  137 

For  a  moment  after  the  death  of  Le  Sauvage,  Las  Casas  was 
in  despair,  but  hope  revived  when  La  Mure,  a  nephew  of 
Charles's  favorite  chamberlain  La  Chaulx,  manifested  an  inter- 
est in  the  Indians  which  strengthened  rapidly  under  Las  Casas's 
eloquence.  La  Chaulx  was  induced  to  listen  to  him  and  became 
his  warm  supporter — in  fact,  the  Flemings  as  a  rule,  favored 
him,  possibly  as  a  part  of  their  antagonism  to  the  Spaniards. 
With  their  assistance  the  plan  of  inducing  industrious  peasants 
to  emigrate  was  taken  up  and  ample  powers  were  conferred 
on  Las  Casas  to  carry  it  out.  He  set  about  it  with  his  accus- 
tomed vigor  and  it  promised  well,  but  again  his  hopes  were 
dashed.  He  was  induced  to  appoint  as  his  assistant  a  gentle- 
man named  Berrio,  to  whom  a  commission  was  given  placing 
him  under  the  orders  of  Las  Casas,  but  after  it  was  signed  by  the 
king  Bishop  Fonseca  secretly  altered  it,  rendering  him  inde- 
pendent. After  working  together  for  a  short  time  Berrio  cut 
loose,  went  to  Andalusia  and  collected  some  two  hundred 
tramps  and  vagabonds,  whom  he  took  to  Seville  and  handed 
over  to  the  Contratacion.  Las  Casas  had  not  yet  given  it 
instructions,  but  it  shipped  these  choice  colonists  to  Hispanola, 
where  no  preparations  had  been  made  for  them;  most  of  them 
perished  and  the  rest  took  to  evil  courses.  After  such  a  begin- 
ning there  was  small  hope  of  success  and  Las  Casas  abandoned 
the  scheme  when  he  learned  that  the  Geronimites  had  sold  the 
royal  plantations  out  of  which  the  immigrants  were  to  receive 
allotments  and  when  he  found  that  Bishop  Fonseca  and  the 
Council  refused  to  make  the  promised  provision  for  their  tem- 
porary support.1 

Still  indefatigable  in  spite  of  these  repeated  disappointments, 
he  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  new  Chancellor  Gattinara,  with 
whom  he  speedily  evolved  a  more  daring  scheme.  Abandoning 
the  islands,  he  resolved  to  try  whether  the  peaceful  colonization 
of  new  territory  might  not  solve  the  problems  which  had  thus 
far  baffled  Spanish  statesmanship.  Tierra  Firme — the  north 
coast  of  the  Southern  continent — had  been  scarcely  touched, 
although  Pedro  de  Cordova  with  his  Dominicans  and  some 
Franciscans  had  established  a  few  missionary  stations  there. 

1  Ibid.,  Lib.  Ill,  Cap.  104,  130  (LXV,  391  ;  LXVI,  33). 


138  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

He  asked  for  the  control  of  this  land,  to  be  settled  under  his 
direction,  according  to  an  elaborate  and  somewhat  fantastic 
plan,  which  he  worked  out  in  the  minutest  detail,  and  in  return 
for  this  he  promised  that  in  three  years  the  king  should  derive 
from  it  a  revenue  of  15,000  ducats,  growing  to  30,000  in  six 
years,  and  to  60,000  in  ten  years.  It  shows  the  confidence 
which  he  had  inspired  that  he  obtained  this  grant,  consisting  of 
three  hundred  leagues  of  the  northern  coast,  from  the  Gulf  of. 
Paria  to  Santa  Marta,  and  extending  inland  to  the  southern  sea, 
comprising  in  fact,  well  night  half  of  South  America.  The 
"capitulation"  was  signed  by  Charles,  May  19,  1520,  at  Coruna, 
two  days  before  he  sailed  to  assume  the  title  of  King  of  the 
Romans.  Las  Casas  owed  this  to  the  favor  of  Cardinal  Adrian 
and  the  Flemings,  for  Bishop  Fonseca  and  the  Council  of  the 
Indies  had  fought  the  project  bitterly  and  he  had  only  been  suc- 
cessful at  the  last  moment.1 

On  the  strength  of  such  a  grant  as  this  he  had  no  trouble  in 
raising  the  money  requisite  for  the  enterprise;  the  necessary 
papers  were  made  out  for  him,  friends  contributed  an  ample  store 
of  beads,  bells  and  other  trinkets  for  trading  with  the  Indians, 
he  gathered  a  sufficient  number  of  industrious  laborers,  and  on 
November  n,  1520,  he  set  sail  from  San  Lucar,  full  of  hope, 
for  he  had  at  his  disposal  a  vast  territory  on  which  no  Spaniard 
could  set  foot  without  his  permission  and  where  he  would  have 
free  scope  to  realize  his  convictions  that  the  Indians  could  be 
converted  and  civilized  by  peaceful  means.  On  his  arrival  at 
Puertorico,  however,  disastrous  news  awaited  him.  Spaniards 
engaged  in  the  pearl  fishery  on  Cubagna,  one  of  the  Leeward 
Isles  near  the  coast,  being  in  want  of  Indians  to  carry  on  that 
peculiarly  deadly  trade,  had  made  a  raid  on  the  mainland  for 
slaves;  the  exasperated  natives  had  retaliated  by  massacring  the 
Dominicans  at  Chiribichi  and  Maracapana,  on  whom  he  had 
relied  for  the  commencement  of  his  work,  and  moreover,  the 
authorities  of  Hispanola,  under  pretext  of  avenging  this,  were 
organizing  a  great  slave  raid  in  five  vessels  with  three  hundred 
men.  There  was  thus  little  chance  for  the  peaceful  colonizing 
on  which  his  scheme  depended,  but  he  waited  in  Puertorico  to 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  131-141,  155  (LXVI,  pp.  37  sqq.,  164). 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  139 

intercept  and  if  possible  arrest  the  expedition.  When  it  came, 
however,  the  captain  refused  to  obey  the  royal  power  delegated 
to  Las  Casas  and  proceeded  on  his  errand  of  destruction.  Las 
Casas  went  on  to  Hispanola,  where  the  authorities  threw  every 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  plans,  although  they  could  not  refuse 
to  issue  the  required  proclamation  forbidding,  under  pain  of 
death  and  confiscation,  anyone  to  go  to  his  territory  without 
his  license.  He  was  finally  obliged  to  come  to  a  compromise, 
under  which,  in  July,  1521,  he  set  out  for  the  coast  in  two  vessels 
laden  with  provisions  and  articles  of  barter.  He  landed  in  the 
river  Cumana,  where  Gonzalo  de  Ocampo  was  endeavoring  to 
found  a  Spanish  settlement  near  a  Franciscan  mission,  but  his 
people  were  starving,  for  the  Spaniards  on  Cubagna  kept  the 
whole  coast  in  a  state  of  alarm  and  the  natives  everywhere  were 
hostile.  Ocampo's  men  gladly  seized  the  opportunity  to  escape 
and  those  whom  Las  Casas  had  brought  refused  to  remain. 
There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  land  the  goods,  to  the  value 
of  50,000  castellanos,  and  to  let  the  people  go.1 

It  was  evident  that  the  peaceful  conversion  of  the  Indians 
was  impossible  unless  the  raids  on  the  coast  could  be  stopped, 
and  for  this  it  was  necessary  to  invoke  the  royal  authority. 
After  long  and  prayerful  consideration  Las  Casas  concluded  to 
appeal  personally  for  this  and  he  sailed  for  Hispanola;  an  ignor- 
ant pilot  carried  him  to  leeward  of  Cape  Beata  and  two  months 
were  wasted  in  vainly  beating  against  wind  and  current  to  get 
back.  Finally  he  abandoned  the  attempt  and  landed  at 
Yaquimo  (Jacmel?)  and  made  his  way  across  the  country  to  San 
Domingo,  where  he  learned  that  his  colony  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  Indians,  though  most  of  his  people  had  made  their 
escape.  The  blow  was  crushing;  the  lofty  hopes  which  he  had 
cherished  when  leaving  Spain,  with  half  a  continent  at  his  dis- 
posal, were  irretrievably  shattered,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  even 
his  iron  tenacity  of  purpose  gave  way  for  a  time.  He  wrote 
to  the  king  and  while  awaiting  a  reply,  in  1523,  he  yielded 
to  the  solicitations  of  the  Dominicans  and  entered  their  order. 
During  his  noviciate  letters  came  from  Cardinal  Adrian  and 
the  Flemings  of  the  court  telling  him  that  if  he  would  return 

'Ibid.,  Cap.  156-8  (LXVI,  pp.  165  sqq.). 


14°  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

he  should  be  received  with  greater  favor  then  ever,  but  the 
superiors  of  the  convent  withheld  them  and  he  took  the  irrevo- 
cable vows.1 

After  the  agitations  and  disappointments  of  the  last  eight 
years  the  peaceful  existence  of  the  convent  was  grateful  and 
Las  Casas  found  repose  in  the  study  of  theology  and  in  writing 
his  "Historia  Apologetica."  It  shows  that  the  kindly  inten- 
tions of  the  Spanish  rulers  towards  their  Indian  subjects  were 
not  dependent  upon  his  exhortations,  that  during  this  period 
Charles  V  issued  a  decree,  June  26,  1523,  to  the  effect  that  no 
one  should  injure  the  Indians  in  person  or  property;  any  one 
striking  or  killing  them  or  taking  from  them  anything  against 
their  will,  except  the  legal  tribute,  or  laying  hands  upon  them 
or  seizing  their  wives  or  children,  should  be  punished  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  Castile,  and  all  royal  officials  were  ordered 
to  use  the  most  watchful  care  in  ascertaining  and  punishing 
wrongs  committed  upon  them.2  In  1523  also,  he  repeated  to 
Cortes  an  injunction  which  he  had  given  to  Diego  Velazquez  in 
1518,  forbidding  him  from  making  repartimientos  of  the 
Indians.3  They  were  thus  fully  recognized  as  free  vassals  of 
the  crown,  like  native  Castilians,  and  the  decree  of  1523  was 
reissued  in  1543,  1582  and  1620.  Another  decree  of  November 
9,  1526,  repeated  in  1530,  1532,  1540,  1542  and  1548,  forbade 
the  enslaving  of  any  Indian,  even  if  captured  in  a  just  war; 
all  permissions  to  that  effect,  issued  by  local  authorities,  were 
revoked;  any  one  holding,  buying,  selling  or  exchanging  an 
Indian  slave  was  punishable  with  forfeiture  of  all  his  property, 
while  the  Indian  was  to  be  set  free,  and  officials  neglecting  to 
enforce  this  with  all  rigor  were  deprived  of  their  offices  and 
mulcted  in  10,000  maravedis.4  Moreover,  Charles  caused  a 

1  Ibid.,  Cap.  158-160  (LXVI,  pp.  180  sqq.). 

2  Recopiladdn,  Ley  4,  Tit.  x,  Lib.  VI.     A  practical  commentary  on  this  legis- 
lation is  the  torture  administered  to  Guatemozin  and  his  chiefs  at  the  demand 
of  the  royal  treasurer  Julian  de  Alderete,  to  discover  the  treasure  lost  in  the 
Noche  Triste.     Alderete  was  a  creature  of  Bishop  Fonseca. — Torquemada,  Mon- 
arquia  Indiana,    Tom.   I,    p.    574  (Ed.    1723).       Cf.    Obreg6n,   Mexico    Viejo,    II 
Serie,  p.  9. 

3  Solorzani  de  Indiarum  Jure,  Tom.  II,  p.  266  (Matriti,  1639). 

4  Recop.  Ley  i.  Tit.  ii,  Lib.  VI. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  141 

collection  of  the  laws  relating  to  the  Indies  to  be  made,  to  which 
were  prefixed  declarations  of  December  4,  1528,  and  August 
24,  1529,  stating  that  the  object  of  the  compilation  was  the  con- 
version and  good  treatment  of  the  Indians,  wherefore  he  ordered 
the  inviolable  observance  of  the  laws,  especially  those  in  their 
favor,  in  spite  of  all  supplications  and  appeals,  and  all  viceroys, 
governors,  judges,  etc.,  were  threatened  with  confiscation,  sus- 
pension from  office  and  punishment  at  the  royal  pleasure  for 
disobedience.1  If  the  Indians  were  oppressed  it  evidently  was 
not  through  any  lack  of  good  intentions  on  the  part  of  the 
monarch,  especially  as  Bishop  Fonseca  had  died  in  1524. 

Yet  was  there  no  abatement  of  cruelty  and  oppression. 
Cortes  was  trampling  on  Mexico,  and  Pizarro  and  Almagro 
were  on  the  point  of  starting  for  Peru,  where  they  were  to 
earn  an  infamous  immortality.  The  rumor  of  their  project  is 
said  to  have  roused  Las  Casas  from  his  retirement,  leading 
him  to  visit  Spain  again,  whence  he  returned  with  the  decree 
of  1530,  which  he  carried  in  1532  to  Peru,  where  Pizarro  and 
Almagro  received  it  obediently,  promised  to  have  it  solemnly 
proclaimed  with  additional  penalties,  and  coolly  went  on  with 
their  infernal  work.2  Thus  restored  to  activity,  Las  Casas 
speedily  regained  his  former  ardor.  We  hear  of  him,  in  1533, 
in  Hispafiola  as  prior  of  the  convent  of  Puerto  de  Plata,  where 
he  created  scandal  by  propagating,  in  his  sermons  and  other- 
wise, scruples  of  conscience  as  to.  the  treatment  of  the  Indians 
and  forcing  a  moribund  to  execute  a  will  manumitting  those 
whom  he  held,  for  which  the  judges  complained  bitterly  of  him 
to  the  emperor.3  In  1535  he  was  aroused  to  fresh  zeal  by  a 
report  that  in  return  for  a  loan  of  300,000  or  400,000  ducats, 
some  300  or  400  leagues  of  the  coast  of  Tierra  Firme  had  been 
leased  to  the  Germans  for  four  years.  This  brought  from  him 
a  fiery  letter  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  on  their  responsibility 
for  the  destruction  of  the  bodies  and  souls  of  the  Indians,  to 
remedy  which  he  proposed,  in  full  detail,  a  plan  for  ejecting  all 
the  conquistadores  and  placing  the  colonies  in  the  hands  of 
bishops  and  friars  with  troops  under  their  orders.4 

1  Recop.  Ley  5,  Tit.  i,  Lib.  VI.       2  Fabie,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  136-8). 
3  Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  346.  4Ibid.,  pp.  464-86. 


142  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

In  1536  we  find  him  in  Mexico,  where,  in  derision  of  his 
peaceful  theories,  the  Spaniards  proposed  his  trying  them  on 
the  province  of  Tuzulutlan,  which  from  its  rugged  features  and 
excessive  rainfall  had  resisted  all  attempts  at  invasion.  He 
accepted  the  challenge  and  entered  into  a  formal  agreement 
with  the  president,  Alonso  Maldonado,  who  promised  that  if 
the  Indians  should  submit  and  pay  such  moderate  tribute  as 
the  land  could  afford  in  gold,  cotton  or  maize,  they  should  never 
be  subjected  to  repartimientos  and  encomiendas,  and  that  for 
five  years  no  Spaniard  should  be  allowed  to  enter  the  territory, 
so  that  his  missionary  labors  should  be  undisturbed.  Las 
Casas,  with  two  frailes,  succeeded  in  converting  the  cacique  and 
his  people,  but  his  work  was  cut  short  by  a  summons  to  Guate- 
mala in  1538,  for,  as  a  Dominican,  he  was  now  subject  to  the 
orders  of  his  superiors.  Maldonado,  who  was  by  no  means  an 
admirer  of  Las  Casas' s  theories,  in  a  letter  to  the  king,  October 
1 6,  1539,  freely  described  the  success  of  the  effort  and  his  regret 
that  Las  Casas  should  have  been  called  off.  In  1540  the  agree- 
ment was  confirmed  by  Charles,  and  May  i,  1543,  he  issued  a 
cedula  promising  that  neither  he  nor  his  successors  would  ever 
alienate  the  Indians  of  Tuzulutlan  from  the  crown.  In  1545 
Las  Casas,  then  Bishop  of  Chiapa,  had  the  satisfaction  of  visit- 
ing the  province,  when  the  Christian  Indians  and  their  caciques 
received  him  joyfully  in  crowds.  In  honor  of  this  peaceful 
victory  the  name  of  Tuzulutlan,  in  1 547,  was  changed  to  Vera 
Paz;  in  1560  it  became  the  seat  of  a  bishopric,  which  in  1605 
was  merged  into  that  of  Guatemala.1  This  was  the  one  success 
of  Las  Casas  in  his  long  and  active  career,  but  it  is  of  supreme 
importance  as  showing  the  truth  of  his  postulate  that  men  of 
apostolic  spirit  could  have  peacefully  spread  Christianity  and 
civilization  through  the  New  World. 

While  in  Guatemala,  in  1539,  Las  Casas  received  instructions 
from  Charles  to  continue  his  good  work  in  pacifying  the 
•Indians,  but  he  was  anxious  to  interview  the  emperor  and  he 
procured  a  mission  to  go  to  Spain  and  bring  out  more  mem- 
bers of  his  order.  On  his  arrival  he  found  that  Charles  was  in 

1  Fabi6,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,   144-53,  182-6,  487).— Gams,    Series  Episco- 
porum,  p.  151. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  ojf  Spain.  143 

Germany  and  to  him  wrote,  December  15,  1540,  that  he  had 
matters  of  importance  to  communicate,  wherefore  he  solicited 
instructions  to  the  Provincial  of  Castile  to  let  him  remain  until 
the  emperor's  return.1  The  conjuncture  was  favorable,  for 
Garcia  de  Loyasa,  Archbishop  of  Seville,  who  was  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  regarded  Las  Casas  with 
much  favor.  It  was  resolved  to  reconsider  the  whole  legislation 
regarding  the  Indians,  and  during  1541  and  1542  numerous 
conferences  were  held  for  the  purpose  of  drafting  new  laws.  As 
a  contribution  to  the  discussion  Las  Casas  wrote  several  tracts, 
not  printed  until  1552,  chief  among  which  was  his  celebrated 
"Brevisima  relacion  de  da  Destruycion  de  las  Yndias,"  which 
has  been  translated  into  almost  every  European  language  and 
has  formed  the  text  of  the  discourses  on  the  subject  since  then. 
Another  of  the  tracts  consists  of  the  eighth  of  a  series  of 
remedies  which,  by  order  of  the  emperor,  he  laid  before  a  con- 
ference held  at  Valladolid  in  1542.  This,  he  says,  is  the  princi- 
pal remedy,  without  which  all  the  rest  would  be  useless,  viz. 
that  the  emperor  shall  cause  an  inviolable  law  to  be  passed  by 
the  cortes  and  be  sworn  to  in  the  most  solemn  manner  by  the 
sovereign  for  himself  and  his  successors,  incorporating  as  free 
vassals  of  the  crown  of  Castile  and  Leon  all  Indians  now  or 
hereafter  subjected,  who  are  never  to  be  alienated  or  granted 
in  encomiendas  to  Spaniards.2 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Las  Casas  exerted  efficient 
influence  on  the  character  of  the  "New  Laws/'  wliich  were 
finally  signed  by  Charles  at  Barcelona,,  November  20,  1542,  and 
were  sent  not  only  to  the  viceroys  and  governors,  but  to  the 
superiors  of  the  convents,  so  that  their  execution  should  be 
supervised.  While  not  all  that  he  had  asked  for,  they  reflected 
his  views  too  faithfully  to  retain  their  place  in  permanent  legis- 
lation, for  few  traces  of  them  are  to  be  found  in  the  final  Reco- 
pilacion,  collected  and  promulgated  in  1680.  They  prohibited 
all  slavery  of  Indians,  whom  they  required  to  be  treated  as  what 
they  were — vassals  of  the  crown  of  Castile;  all  existing  slaves 
were  to  be  set  free  if  the  owners  could  not  show  legitimate  title, 
and  the  courts  were  ordered  to  appoint  proper  persons  to  con- 

1  Col.  de  Doc.  VIII,  555.  2  El  Octavo  Remedio  (Venet.,  1640). 


144  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

duct  their  cases  and  to  be  paid  out  of  the  fines.  The  reparti- 
mientos  and  encomiendas  were  not  abolished,  but  all  new  ones 
were  prohibited  and  existing  ones  were  to  lapse  on  the  death 
of  the  possessors,  provision  being  made  to  compensate  widows 
and  children  out  of  the  Indian  tribute.1 

To  appreciate  the  opposition  excited  by  this  project  for  the 
extinction  of  the  encomiendas,  we  must  consider  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  Spanish  conquests.  They  were  not  made  by 
the  royal  fleets  and  armies,  at  the  expense  and  under  the 
direction  of  the  crown,  but  by  filibustering  expeditions  of 
adventurers  who  put  at  risk  their  money  and  their  lives  in  the 
hope  of  profit,  while  the  crown  obtained  the  suzerainty  of  the 
conquered  territories,  with  one-fifth  of  the  precious  metals  dis- 
covered and  a  tribute  from  the  Indians  subdued.  Ponce  de 
Leon,  Vasco  Nunez,  Cortes,  Pizarro,  Alvarado,  Hernando  de 
Soto,  were  adventurers  of  this  type,  with  at  most  a  royal  license 
granting  them  certain  rights  over  what  territory  they  might 
acquire.  When  the  conquest  was  made  it  was  organized  by 
giving  to  each  soldier,  according  to  his  merits  and  services, 
an  encomienda,  or  tract  of  land,  with  so  many  Indians,  to  be 
held  for  two  lives,  after  which  it  would  lapse  to  the  crown.  The 
indignation  not  unnaturally  excited  among  those  threatened 
with  the  shortening  of  their  tenures,  is  expressed  with  more 
vigor  than  courtliness  in  a  letter  to  the  emperor  from  the 
authorities  of  the  city  of  Guatemala,  September  10,  1543.  They 
had  heard  of  the  New  Laws,  but  had  not  yet  received  them,  and 
they  made  haste  to  complain  bitterly  that  their  services  are  to 
be  rewarded  by  depriving  them  of  the  grants  solemnly  assured 
to  them.  They  had  conquered  the  land  at  their  own  expense 
without  cost  to  the  crown;  they  had  been  urged  and  ordered  to 
marry  and  are  now  encumbered  with  families,  while  their 
children  are  to  be  left  to  starve  by  depriving  them  of  the  succes- 
sion to  the  repartimientos,  and  all  this  to  gratify  the  whims  of 
an  ignorant  and  scandalous  friar,  whose  vanity  will  not  allow 
him  to  be  quiet  and  who  had  been  driven  from  every  place  and 
every  convent  that  had  been  afflicted  by  his  presence.2 

1  Brevfsima  Relacidn,  p.  135.— Fabie,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  159-61). 

2  Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  529. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  145 

The  crown  was  evidently  in  a  false  position.  It  had  reaped 
where  it  had  not  sown  and  now  it  was  seeking  to  deprive  the 
laborers  of  all  share  in  the  harvest  earned  by  their  sweat  and 
blood.  The  original  vice  in  the  methods  of  conquest  rendered 
humanity  to  the  Indians  impossible.  So  lately  as  May  13,  1538, 
Charles  had  authorized  the  "commendation,"  for  two  lives,  of 
Indian  towns  and  villages  to  those  who  had  deserved  the 
reward,1  and  it  could  not  be  expected  that  they  would  submit 
quietly  to  this  sudden  change  of  policy,  which  meant  ruin  to 
their  families,  while  aggrandizing  the  crown.  When  Blasco 
Nunez  Vela  endeavored  to  enforce  the  new  laws  in  Peru,  it 
led  to  the  revolt  under  Gonzalo  Pizarro,  and  the  same  would 
have  been  the  result  in  Mexico  had  not  Francisco  Tello  de 
Sandoval  prudently  suspended  them  after  publication.  The 
loss  of  all  the  colonies  on  the  mainland  was  imminent  and 
Charles  yielded.  He  was  in  Flanders,  far  removed  from  the 
influence  of  Las  Casas,  and  at  Mechlin,  October  20,  1545,  he 
issued  a  cedula  revoking  the  provisions  of  1542  on  this  sub- 
ject.2 The  encomiendas  thus  were  firmly  established,  and  for 
a  hundred  years  they  continued  to  be  the  subject  of  perpetual 
legislation,  mostly  in  the  direction  of  protecting  the  Indians 
from  the  abuses  inherent  in  the  system.  Theoretically,  as 
described  by  Machuca,  this  was  simply  that  all  the  Indians  in 
an  encomienda  should  pay  to  the  lord  a  tribute  fixed  by  law, 
in  return  for  which  he  was  required  to  establish  and  maintain 
a  "doctrina,"  or  mission  with  a  priest,  to  defend  them  in  their 
suits,  to  cure  them  in  their  maladies,  to  pursue  and  seize  all 
fugitives  and  to  perform  some  other  minor  duties.3  The  statutes 

1  Recop.  Ley  3,  Tit.  viii,  Lit.  VI. 

2  Solorzani  de  Indiarum  Jure,   II,  598. — Garcilaso  Inca,  Hist.   Gen.  del  Peru, 
Lib.  IV,  Cap.  vii,  sqq. — Recop.  ubi  sup. 

3  Discursos  Apoldxicos  (Col.   de  Doc.   LXXI,   260).      The  encomiendas    had 
originally  been  granted  for  two  lives  and  there  was  naturally  a  constant  pressure 
for  extending  or  perpetuating  the  benefice.     In  1555  Antonio  de  Ribera  was  sent 
to  the  emperor  in  Germany  with  an  offer  of  six  or  seven  millions  of  ducats  if  he 
would  render  them   perpetual  in  Peru.     Las  Casas  protested  vigorously  but 
Charles  yielded,  and  by  a  cedula  from  Ghent,  September  5,  1556,  he  conceded 
the  request ;  the  transaction,  however,  fell  through  owing  to  the  impossibility  of 
raising  so  enormous  a  sum  (Solorzano,   II,   598).     Yet  it  was  recognized  as  a 

10 


146  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

for  their  protection,  in  the  constant  reiteration  of  prohibitions 
of  oppression,  are  eloquent  of  the  wrongs  to  which  the  defence- 
less serfs  were  subjected,  incurable  by  legislation,  however  benefi- 
cent. That  repeated  decrees  forbade  all  officials  and  churches 
to  hold  encomiendas  was  evidently  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
them  from  being  interested  in  the  violation  of  laws  which  they 
were  bound  to  enforce,  but  the  necessity  for  re-enunciating 
these  decrees  shows  how  little  they  were  obeyed.1  At  the  close 
of  the  century  Mendieta  describes  the  encomiendas  as  the  most 
cruel  infliction  which  threatens  the  destruction  of  the  Indians, 
who  were  compelled  to  forced  labor  with  unsparing  rigor.  His 
description  of  their  conditions  is  deplorable,  for  their  tasks  were 
exacted  of  them  with  merciless  severity  and  they  were  treated 
far  worse  than  the  negro  slaves,  whose  cost  was  some  protec- 
tion. It  was  a  serious  obstacle  to  their  conversion,  for  the 
hatred  thus  aroused  was  especially  directed  to  the  ministers  of 
God  as  the  accomplices  of  their  ruthless  oppressors.2  In  the  first 
quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  Fray  Juan  de  Torquemada 
describes  the  system  as  the  total  destruction  of  the  Indians 
through  the  forced  labor  imposed  on  them  in  the  mines  and 
elsewhere,  though  he  deems  it  more  prudent  not  to  enter  into 

hardship  that  the  grandchildren  of  the  conquerors  should  be  disinherited  and 
sundry  laws  of  1555,  1559,  1576,  1588  and  1607  recite  that  in  this  way  the 
descendants  of  the  original  discoverers  and  settlers  became  impoverished, 
wherefore  it  was  ordered  that  a  third  life  might  be  tolerated  and  then  a  fourth. 
Finally  the  rule  of  four  lives  was  adopted  for  all  grants  made  up  to  1607. 
Those  who  subsequently  obtained  encomiendas  endeavored  to  claim  the  benefit 
of  this,  but  Philip  IV,  in  1637,  decreed  that  unless  a  longer  term  was  specified 
in  the  grant  it  should  be  deemed  for  two  lives  only  (Recop.  Leyes  14,  15,  Tit.  xi, 
Lib.  VI).  They  were  in  some  sense  military  fiefs  ;  the  encomiendero  was  held  to 
military  service  and  was  bound  to  keep  horse  and  arms  ;  the  holding  passed  to 
the  eldest  son  if  there  was  one,  and  could  never  be  sold  or  exchanged  or 
alienated  and  one-third  of  the  revenue  was  paid  to  the  crown  (Ibid.,  Leyes  1-4, 
8,  13,  Tit.  xi ;  Leyes  38,  39,  44,  Tit.  viii ;  Leyes  4,  8,  Tit.  ix,  Lib.  VI).  The 
Indians  when  gathered  in  pueblos  or  villages  under  this  system  were  in  some 
sense  predial  serfs,  for  they  could  not  leave  the  spot  ;  but  there  were  also  large 
numbers  of  them  de  mita,  who  were  employed  in  forced  labor  at  the  mines  and 
in  transportation,  in  which  their  sufferings  continued  with  little  abatement  (Leyes 
16,  17,  22.  25,  Tit.  ix  ;  Tit.  xii,  Lib.  VI). 

1  Recop.  Ley  12,  Tit.  viii,  Lib.  VI. 

2  Mendieta,  Hist.  Ecles.,  pp.  519  sqq. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  147 

details.1  The  saintly  Palafox,  who,  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  as  bishop  of  Puebla,  protector  of  the  Indians  and  inspec- 
tor-general of  the  tribunals,  had  traversed  Mexico  from  shore 
to  shore  and  thus  had  special  knowledge  of  the  situation,  in 
1650  addressed  to  Philip  IV  a  touching  appeal  to  enforce  the 
laws  for  their  protection;  they  were  still  subject  to  intolerable 
abuses,  including  enforced  labor,  but  their  long-suffering  was 
such  that  they  endured  all  in  silence  and  rarely  sought  redress 
for  the  most  flagrant  wrongs  unless  stimulated  to  it  by  some 
Spaniard.2 

In  the  "New  Laws"  of  1542,  Las  Casas  had  again  apparently 
accomplished  nearly  all  that  he  had  sought,  and  in  that  year 
he  was  offered  the  bishopric  of  Cuzco,  which  he  refused.  Then 
the  see  of  Chiapa  fell  vacant,  which  he  accepted.  The  year  1543 
was  passed  in  getting  his  bulls  from  Rome  and  in  selecting  a 
chosen  band  of  forty-six  Dominicans  to  accompany  him,  for 
he  was  resolved  to  make  full  use  of  the  power  inherent  in  the 
episcopal  office  to  enforce  the  reforms  which  had  been  promised 
in  the  new  legislation.  He  was  consecrated  in  Seville,  March 
30,  1544,  and  on  July  10  he  sailed  from  San  Lucar,  reaching 
San  Domingo  September  9.  He  found  that  the  New  Laws 
had  not  received  the  slightest  attention;  procurators  had  been 
sent  to  Spain  to  labor  for  their  repeal,  and  it  was  with  great 
difficulty  that  he  obtained  their  publication  without  thereby 
securing  their  observance.3  It  was  the  same  when  he  reached 
Campeachy,  early  in  January,  1545,  and  so  great  was  the 
antagonism  towards  him  that  the  people  refused  to  receive  him 
as  their  bishop  or  to  pay  his  salary  and  tithes,  so  that  he  had 
no  little  trouble  in  raising  money  to  defray  a  portion  of  the 
charter  of  the  vessels  that  brought  him  and  his  frailes.  After 
tribulations  and  losses  he  reached  his  episcopal  city  of  Cuidad 
Real  de  Chiapa,  where  in  his  modest  cathedral  he  found  but  two 
priests — the  dean,  Gil  Quintana,  and  canon,  Juan  Perera.  His 
sermons  and  exhortations  as  to  the  Indians  were  uttered  to 
deaf  ears,  but  as  Easter  drew  near  he  felt  himself  master  of  the 

1  Torquemada,  Monarquia  Indiana,  T.  I,  p.  647. 

2  Palafox,  De  la  Naturaliza  del  India  (Obras,  Madrid,  1762,  T.  X,  p.  451),. 
8  Fabi6,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.  LXX,  pp.  161-71). 


148  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

situation.  Paschal  communion  was  a  matter  of  obligation, 
which  no  Spaniard  of  that  day  could  possibly  omit,  while  sacra- 
mental confession  and  absolution  were  a  condition  precedent 
to  communion.  As  bishop  he  had  complete  control  of  the 
confessional;  he  could  determine  who  should  hear  confessions 
and  what  sins  he  should  reserve  for  absolution  by  himself 
exclusively.  He  commenced  by  withdrawing  all  licenses  to 
hear  confessions,  except  those  of  Quintana  and  Perera,  and  to 
them  he  gave  a  list  of  cases  reserved  to  himself,  including  not 
only  the  servitude  and  ill-treatment  of  the  Indians,  but  the 
wealth  acquired  from  them,  which  he  classed  as  ill-gotten  gains 
requiring  restitution  before  the  sinner  could  hope  for  absolu- 
tion. This  practical  denial  of  the  Easter  sacrament  produced  a 
tumultuous  agitation  in  which  his  life  was  threatened;  Quintana 
favored  the  slave-holders  and  ventured  to  absolve  four  of  them 
under  his  faculties  as  commissioner  of  the  Santa  Cruzada,  for 
which  Las  Casas  excommunicated  him;  but  the  people  so  boy- 
cotted the  bishop  and  his  Dominicans  that  they  were  in  danger 
of  starvation  and  took  refuge  with  the  Indians  of  Chiapa,  who 
received  them  with  rejoicing  and  earnestly  sought  conversion 
and  baptism.1 

Las  Casas  had  summoned  Marroquin,  Bishop  of  Guatemala, 
and  Valdevieso  of  Nicaragua  to  meet  him  at  Gracias  a  Dios, 
the  capital  of  the  province,  for  the  purpose  of  demanding  of  the 
Audiencia,  or  royal  court,  the  enforcement  of  the  New  Laws. 
To  keep  this  engagement  he  left  his  retreat  among  the  Indians 
and  went  to  the  capital,  where  the  president  Maldonado  and  the 
judges  treated  him  with  contempt  and  called  him  a  fool  and  a 
madman.  Nothing  daunted,  on  October  22,  1545,  he  presented 
a  formal  demand  that  he  should  be  supported  by  the  civil  power 
in  his  episcopal  authority  and  that  the  New  Laws  should  be 
enforced;  if  this  was  not  done  within  three  months,  he  pro- 
nounced on  them  a  sentence  of  excommunication  ipso  jure. 
They  replied  that  they  would  issue  orders  to  enforce  his  jurisdic- 
tion and  that  they  would  obey  the  royal  laws,  but  they  appealed 
from  his  sentence  to  the  pope,  they  denied  his  power  to  excom- 
municate them  and  threatened  to  report  his  excesses  to  the  king 

.,  pp.  172-86,  53I-33- 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  149 

in  order  that  he  might  be  properly  punished.  Both  sides,  in 
fact,  wrote  to  Spain  accusing  the  other.  Las  Casas  and 
Valdevieso  stated  that  the  condition  of  the  Indians  was  grow- 
ing worse,  that  Maldonado  and  his  kindred  held  allotments  of 
60,000  of  them  and  of  course  he  would  not  enforce  the  New 
Laws;  that  the  Bishop  of  Guatemala  also  held  allotments,  and 
that  they  would  resign  their  sees  unless  there  were  prospects  of 
improvement.  Then  news  reached  him  that  the  people  of 
Cuidad  Real  had  organized  to  seize  his  temporalities  and  pre- 
vent his  return.  In  spite  of  warnings  that  his  life  was  at  stake, 
he  set  out  and  entered  the  town  at  night.  There  were  stormy 
and  tumultuous  proceedings,  but  his  firmness  triumphed,  and 
by  Christmas  he  was  carried  in  procession  to  a  house  that  had 
been  prepared  for  him.1  Bancroft  Ubr 

His  stay  was  short.  In  1544  Francisco  Tello  de  Sandoval 
had  come  to  New  Spain  as  msitador,  or  inspector-general,  with 
instructions  to  promulgate  the  New  Laws,  which  he  did,  March 
28,  1545.  They  were  not  enforced,  however,  owing  to  the 
general  opposition,  and  it  was  probably  on  this  account  that  he 
summoned  all  the  bishops  and  superiors  of  convents  to  meet 
him  in  Mexico.  Towards  the  end  of  February,  1 546,  Las  Casas 
set  out,  secretly  resolving  never  to  return.  There  was  a  notable 
gathering  of  prelates  and  men  of  learning,  who  after  many  public 
conferences  laid  down  eight  principles,  which  are  noteworthy 
as  expressing  the  attitude  of  the  Church  on  the  policy  of  the 
conquest.  These  state  that  the  only  object  of  the  Holy  See 
in  conceding  the  sovereignty  of  the  Indies  to  Spain  was  the 
propagation  of  the  faith;  that  the  heathen  justly  possess  what 
they  hold,  including  their  kingdoms,  states,  lordships  and  juris- 
dictions; that  conversion  can  only  be  accomplished  by  persua- 
sion; that  the  Holy  See,  in  granting  the  supreme  overlordship 
to  Spain,  did  not  intend  to  deprive  the  natives  of  their  estates 
and  dignities  and  jurisdictions,  or  to  concede  anything  that 
would  interfere  with  the  evangelization  of  the  land,  and  that  the 
Kings  of  Castile,  in  volunteering  to  provide  for  the  diffusion  of 
the  faith,  were  under  obligation  to  defray  all  expenses  necessary 
for  that  purpose.  Moreover  on  this  basis  was  framed  a  formu- 

id.,  pp.  182-201,  535-41. 


150  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

lary  for  confessors  in  absolving  Spaniards,  and  a  memorial  was 
drawn  up  to  the  king  and  the  Council  of  the  Indies  so  that  its 
principles  might  be  embodied  in  legislation.  In  all  this  the 
slavery  of  the  Indians  was  not  alluded  to,  at  the  express  desire 
of  the  viceroy,  Antonio  de  Mendoza,  but  a  sermon  of  Las  Casas 
on  the  subject  so  moved  him  that  he  permitted  it  to  be  discussed 
in  meetings  held  privately  and  offered  to  forward  to  the  king 
their  conclusions,  which  were  that  Indian  slavery  was  unlawful, 
except  of  those  captured  in  the  second  war  of  Jalisco,  and  that 
the  enforced  labor  imposed  on  the  natives  was  condemned.1 

Las  Casas  was  determined  to  return  to  Spain.  In  preparation 
for  his  absence  he  appointed,  in  November,  1546,  aprovisorand 
confessors  to  whom  he  sent  the  instructions  to  confessors  agreed 
upon  in  the  conference  of  Mexico.  These  were  so  rigorous 
that,  when  they  became  known,  appeal  was  made  to  Prince 
Philip,  who  in  November,  1547,  ordered  them  to  be  sent  to 
Spain  for  examination.  The  uncompromising  and  unpractical 
character  of  these  instructions  renders  easily  intelligible 
the  fierce  hatred  which  Las  Casas  excited  among  the  colo- 
nists. He  had  already,  in  1543,  expressed  his  views  in  a  letter 
to  Charles  V,  in  which  he  argued  that  all  the  wealth 
acquired  by  the  conquistadores  and  their  successors  was 
robbery.  From  this  it  followed  that  they  should  be 
stripped  of  it,  except  enough  to  sustain  life;  half  of 
this  should  be  restored  to  those  from  whom  it  had  been 
taken  or  to  their  heirs,  and  the  other  half  be  used  to  send  out 
and  establish  industrious  settlers  who  would  render  the  colonies 
flourishing.2  Even  this,  however,  was  a  compromise  which  he 
outgrew  and  in  the  instructions  to  confessors  he  assumed  that 
not  one  of  the  conquistadores  possessed  rightfully  a  single 
maravedi — if  he  were  rich  as  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia 
he  could  not  with  all  his  wealth  make  satisfactory  restitution, 
and  his  heirs  were  in  the  same  condition.  As  a  preliminary  to 
absolution,  therefore,  the  penitent  was  required  to  make  a  valid 
legal  conveyance  before  a  notary  of  all  his  property,  to  be  dis- 
tributed at  the  discretion  of  the  confessor,  who  might  allow  as 
alms  to  the  heirs  enough  for  a  bare  subsistence.  Extravagant 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  203-8.  2  Col.  de  Doc.  LXXI,  422. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  151 

as  may  seem  this  violent  transfer  of  all  the  wealth,  real  and 
personal,  of  the  colonies  through  the  hands  of  the  confessors,. it 
was  so  rigidly  deducible  from  the  conclusions  of  scholastic 
theology  that  all  the  doctors  and  theologians  to  whom  the 
instructions  were  submitted  approved  of  them,  as  they  were 
bound  to  do.1  In  his  zeal  for  the  Indians,  however,  Las  Casas 
cast  aside  the  system  of  composition  for  ill-gotten  gains  of 
which  the  owner  cannot  be  found,  whereby  the  Church  has 
prudently  in  practice  left  an  outlet  for  the  more  or  less  repentant 
sinner,  in  order  not  to  render  confession  "odious,"  and  we  have 
seen  that  he  excommunicated  his  dean  Quintana  for  exercising 
his  power  as  commissioner  of  the  Santa  Cruzada,  in  which  this 
faculty  of  prescribing  compositions  in  such  cases  has  been  a 
source  of  abundant  revenue.  In  his  letter  of  1543  to  Charles 
V,  Las  Casas  had  admitted  this  principle  of  composition  by 
advising  that,  in  cases  where  the  original  owner  or  his  heirs  could 
not  be  found,  authority  be  obtained  from  the  pope  to  com- 
pound for  one-half  or  one-fifth  or  one-sixth,  according  to  the 
degree  of  criminality  involved,  and  that  the  immense  sums  thus 
acquired  be  expended  in  spreading  the  faith  and  in  establishing 
peaceful  and  industrious  settlers,  after  having  expelled  the 
leaders  of  the  conquistadores,  such  as  Almagro.  The  synod  of 
Santafe  de  Bogota,  in  1556,  proposed  a  more  thrifty  solution  of 
the  problem  by  deciding  that  the  holders  of  encomiendas,  who 
had  established  missions  in  their  lands  and  had  paid  their  full 
dues  to  the  Church,  could  conscientiously  retain  all  that  they 
had  taken  from  the  Indians,  while  those  who  had  neglected  to 
do  so  ought  to  make  restitution,  because  the  reason  for  the 
conquest  was  the  spread  of  the  faith.2 

It  argues  well  for  the  Spanish  monarchs  that  Las  Casas  never 
lost  their  favor  while  maintaining  and  endeavoring  to  enforce 
doctrines  so  revolutionary  and  so  disturbing  to  the  state,  for 
he  applied  them  to  the  sovereign  as  well  as  to  the  subject. 
His  theories,  imperfectly  expressed  in  the  Declaration  of 

ipabie,  Vida  (Col.  de  Doc.,  LXX,  307). 

2  Groot,  Hist,  eclesiastica  y  civil  de  Nueva  Granada,  Tom.  I,  App.  II,  p.  492. 
This  is  stated  to  be  derived  from  the  first  Mexican  council,  held  in  1556,  but 
there  is  no  such  provision  in  the  proceedings  of  the  latter. 


152  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

Mexico  in  1546,  were  that  the  King  of  Spain  was  merely  over- 
lord of  the  Indies,  as  the  emperor  was  of  Germany,  and  that 
even  the  papal  grant  required  free  confirmation  by  the  native 
rulers  to  render  it  effective.  The  Indians  were  to  be  left  to 
their  own  institutions,  under  their  caciques,  while  the  Spanish 
king  was  to  be  at  the  expense  of  maintaining  and  protecting  the 
friars  sent  for  their  conversion.  Even  for  this  service  he  was 
debarred  from  exacting  any  tribute.  In  a  letter  of  August, 
I555>  to  Carranza,  the  subsequent  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  then 
in  England  with  Philip  II,  he  asks  whether  there  is  no  one  who 
will  undeceive  the  sovereigns  and  make  them  understand  that 
they  cannot  levy  a  real  of  tribute  from  the  Indians  with  a  good 
conscience.  To  reach  these  conclusions  he  did  not  hesitate, 
in  an  age  of  absolute  monarchy,  to  affirm  the  broad  principle 
that  rulers  are  made  for  the  people,  not  the  people  for  the 
rulers.1 

In  1547  Las  Casas  left  the  Indies  for  the  last  time.  On  his 
arrival  in  Spain  he  was  almost  at  once  involved  in  his  cele- 
brated contest  with  Gines  de  Sepulveda,  one  of  the  leading 
theologians  of  the  time,  which  occupied  him  until  1550. 
Sepulveda  had  been  retained  by  the  adverse  interests  and  had 
written  a  work  entitled  Democrites  alter,  to  justify  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  Indians.  The  controversy  was  a  bitter  one,  in  which 
Sepulveda  endeavored  to  convict  Las  Casas  of  treason  and 
heresy,  but  it  is  only  of  interest  to  us  here  as  furnishing  evidence 
that  the  conscience  of  the  learned  classes  in  Spain  was  more 
sensitive  on  the  subject  than  has  generally  been  thought,  for, 
although  Sepulveda  stood  forward  as  the  defender  of  the  royal 
power  and  prerogative,  his  book  was  condemned  by  the  uni- 
versities of  Alcala  and  Salamanca,  permission  to  print  it  was 
refused  by  both  the  Councils  of  State  and  of  the  Indies,  and 
when  he  sent  it  to  Rome  to  be  published  its  introduction  into 
Spain  was  prohibited.2  Moreover,  by  command  of  the  Council 
of  the  Indies,  Las  Casas,  in  1552,  wrote  a  tract  enumerating 
the  sufferings  of  the  virtually  enslaved  Indians,  and  proving 
that  Spaniards  so  holding  them  were  in  mortal  sin  and  incapable 

1  Col.  de  Doc.  LXXI,  386.     Disputa  con  Septilveda,  Princip.  iv  (Venet.,  1645). 

2  Disputa  con  Septilveda,  Argomento,  p.  174. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  153 

of  absolution  until  they  should  release  all  who  were  not  legally 
in  bondage.1  To  Las  Casas  may  chiefly  be  attributed  this 
enormous  ethical  advance,  since  Ferdinand's  theologians  justi- 
fied the  Laws  of  Burgos. 

In  1550  Las  Casas  resigned  his  bishopric.  Advancing  years 
rendered  him  less  able  to  perform  active  work  in  the  cause  to 
which  he  had  dedicated  himself,  but,  until  his  death  in  1566, 
at  the  age  of  92,  he  continued  indefatigably  with  pen  and 
tongue  to  defend  the  defenceless  Indians.  He  was  in  constant 
correspondence  with  friends  in  the  Indies,  who  kept  him  advised 
of  their  sufferings,  his  indignation  remained  as  hot  as  ever  and 
his  zeal  for  their  relief  was  unabated.  Yet  he  was  forced 
sorrowfully  to  admit,  in  a  letter  to  the  Dominicans  of  Guate- 
mala, in  1562,  that  in  the  sixty-one  years  during  which  he  had 
been  a  witness  of  Spanish  tyranny,  the  oppression  of  the  Indians 
had  gone  on  constantly  increasing,  which  was  a  disheartening 
outcome  of  his  incessant  labors  and  of  the  numerous  laws  which 
had  been  enacted  in  their  behalf.2  It  is  no  wonder  that  in  what 
was  probably  his  last  writing  he  foretold  that  the  wrath  of  God 
would  be  visited  on  Spain  for  the  wicked  and  impious  treat- 
ment of  the  Indians,  and  that  he  bequeathed  to  the  college 
of  San  Gregorio  in  Valladolid  his  collection  of  letters,  descrip- 
tive of  the  cruelty  practised  on  them,  which  he  desired  to  be 
carefully  preserved  in  order  that  if  the  Lord  should  hereafter 
destroy  Spain  the  causes  of  his  vengeance  might  be  manifest.3 

The  encomiendas,  as  we  have  seen,  had  become  too  deeply 
rooted  to  be  eradicated,  and  the  kindly  legislation  which  con- 
tinued to  be  enacted  was  powerless  to  prevent  the  abuses 
inseparable  from  it — indeed,  the  repetition  of  prohibitions  of 
overtaxing  and  maltreating  the  natives  are  only  of  worth  as 
showing  how  vain  was  the  effort  to  ameliorate  the  system  and 
how  evitable  were  its  evils  under  the  lax  and  corrupt  admin- 
istration prevalent  in  the  Spanish  colonies.  Philip  II  was  con- 
stant and  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  protect  his  Indian  subjects. 
In  1582  he  ordered  inspectors  sent  through  all  the  provinces 

1  Tratado  sobre  la  materia  de  las  Indias  (Venet.,  1657). 

2  Col.  de  Doc.  LXXI,  p.  369. 

3Fabi6,  Vida(Co\.  de  Doc.  LXX,  235,  237). 


154  Yale  Review.  [Aug. 

to  reform  abuses  committed  on  them,  and  he  instructed  his  vice- 
roys and  governors  and  judges  constantly  to  report  whatever 
seemed  to  them  to  require  remedy;  in  1595  he  decreed  that 
Spaniards  who  maltreated  or  injured  Indians  should  be  punished 
more  severely  than  if  the  offence  were  committed  on  Spaniards; 
in  1596  he  commanded  all  prelates  to  send  detailed  reports  by 
every  fleet  as  to  the  condition  of  the  natives — whether  they  were 
well  or  ill  treated,  whether  they  were  increasing  or  diminishing, 
whether  the  laws  for  their  protection  were  observed  or  not — 
together  with  suggestions  as  to  what  could  be  done  for  their 
improvement.1  A  decree  of  Philip  IV  prohibited  all  forced 
labor  and  required  satisfaction  to  be  given  to  him  and  to  the 
world  for  their  ill-treatment,  which  is  against  God  and  himself 
and  the  total  destruction  of  the  empire.2  As  the  Spanish  con- 
quests spread  over  South  America,  the  most  careful  instructions 
were  issued  to  preserve  the  liberty  of  the  Indians,  and  when  in 
1629,  the  Governor  of  Maranon  sent  some  as  slaves  to  other 
places,  saying  that  they  had  been  lawfully  enslaved,  Philip  IV 
ordered  their  immediate  release.3  It  was  the  same  in  the  Philip- 
pines; in  1609  Philip  III  gave  instructions  that  on  all  public 
works  Chinese  and  Japanese  should  be  hired;  if  they  could  not 
be  had  in  adequate  numbers  the  voluntary  service  of  the  natives 
might  be  accepted,  but  they  were  not  to  be  compelled  to  labor 
unless  the  safety  of  the  state  was  at  stake,  for  their  freedom 
was  of  greater  moment  than  the  convenience  of  the  public  or 
any  saving  to  the  treasury.4  Charles  II,  by  a  decree  of  June 
12,  1679,  ordered  all  Indian  slaves  in  Peru  and  New  Spain  to 
be  set  free;  he  had  commanded  this  before,  but  the  governor 
of  Chile  had  suspended  it  under  various  pretexts  and  he  now 
makes  the  order  peremptory,  for  it  is  of  supreme  importance 
that  the  Indians  be  treated  lovingly  and  not  be  oppressed  or 
molested.5  There  was  an  organization  of  officials  known  as 
Protectors  of  the  Indians,  whose  function  it  was  to  see  that 
their  rights  were  preserved,  and  to  enforce  those  rights  by 

1  Recop.  Leyes  7,  8,  21,  Tit.  x,  Lib.  VI. 
2  Ibid.,  Ley  25,  Tit.  v  ;  Ley  2,  Tit.  x,  Lib.  VI. 

3 Ibid.,  Ley  4,  Tit.  ii,  Lib.  VI.  4  Ibid.,  Ley  40,  Tit.  xii,  Lib.  VI. 

5  Ibid.,  Ley  16,  Tit.  ii,  Lib.  VI. 


1899]  Indian  Policy  of  Spain.  155 

judicial  action,  and  these  Protectors  were  instructed  to  keep 
the  home  government  constantly  advised  as  to  any  infringe- 
ment on  the  privileges  of  the  natives  and  as  to  whether  the 
viceroys  and  courts  did  their  duty  in  this  respect.1  The  Sixth 
Book  of  the  Recopilacion  de  las  Leyes  de  las  Indias  contains  hun- 
dreds of  decrees  manifesting  this  constant  and  anxious  care  of 
the  sovereigns  for  the  welfare,  temporal  and  spiritual,  of  the 
native  race  committed  to  their  charge;  and  the  spirit  in  which 
this  compilation  was  made,  in  1680,  is  revealed  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  section  devoted  to  the  good  treatment  of  the  Indians 
the  first  place  is  given  to  the  earnest  and  touching  codicil  of 
Queen  Isabella,  which  is  ordered  to  be  observed  by  all  officials 
as  of  full  legal  and  binding  force. 

The  contrast  between  the  kindliness  which  reigned  in  Madrid 
and  the  oppression  which  prevailed  throughout  the  colonies 
illustrates  the  uselessness  of  legislation  when  its  execution  is 
committed  to  defective  or  corrupt  administration. 

HENRY  CHARLES  LEA. 

Philadelphia. 


1  Ibid.,  Tit.  vi.Lib.  VI. 


THE   TIN   PLATE    COMBINATION. 
I. 

"*HE  excessive  competition  of  the  many  tin-plate  plants 
•*•  established  under  the  hot-house  influences  of  the  tariff 
of  1890,  in  company  with  rising  prices  of  materials,  has  brought 
about  the  formation  of  a  combination  known  as  the  American 
Tin  Plate  Company.  Three  things,  tariff,  low  price  of  steel, 
and  low  wages,  fortunately  meeting  at  the  same  time,  made 
possible  the  rapid  growth  of  this  industry.  In  1890  there  were 
two  or  three  plants  struggling  under  great  difficulties,  barely 
competing  with  foreign  makers.  The  McKmley,  Wilson,  and 
Dingley  bills  restricted  this  competition  to  such  an  extent,  and 
incited  enterprise  to  such  a  degree,  that  1898  saw  forty-one 
plants  engaged  in  the  industry  with  every  promise  of  pros- 
perity.1 The  transformation,  just  spoken  of,  was  almost  mar- 
velous. The  tariff,  checking  foreign  competition,  made  it 
possible  for  those  engaged  in  the  industry  to  construct  their 
mills  and  at  the  same  time  secure  the  double  advantage  of  cheap 
steel  and  low  wages.  The  output  increased  rapidly  from  a  few 
hundred  thousand  pounds  to  hundreds  of  millions  of  pounds,2 
while  the  great  imports  of  early  years  fell  rapidly  to  less  than 
a  third  of  what  they  had  been  in  1890.  Meantime  the  English 
industry  suffered  greatly.  The  American  market  was  the  one 
great  consumer  of  English  tin.  There  had  been  some  dis- 
satisfaction with  English  methods  and  English  manufacture,  so 
that  the  American  producers  had  no  opposition  to  fight  and 
overcome  among  the  consumers  of  English  tin  in  this  country. 
In  fact,  the  purchasers  of  the  commodity  seemed  ready  to 
welcome  any  movement  likely  to  affect  English  prices. 

The  price  during  the  period  of  English  supply  ranged  above 
$5.00  per  box  LC.  14x20  plates.  Although  the  tariff  added 
some  $1.62  to  the  price  of  English  tin  plate  per  box  of  108  Ibs., 
nevertheless  so  great  was  the  influence  of  the  loss  of  the 
American  market  that  the  price  f.o.b.  at  Liverpool  fell  to  about 
$2.40.3  This  in  a  way  set  a  limit  to  the  price  of  American  tin 
plate,  so  that  the  quotation  in  this  country  has  remained  below 
five  dollars.  Since  1893  the  price  was  pushed,  under  the 

1  YALE  REVIEW,  vii,  302,  Nov.  1898.     The  Tin  Plate  Industry.      2  Ibid.,  p.  313. 
8  Eng.  For.  Office  Report,  No.  426,  p.  9. 


